The Buccaneers of Buzz
by Wyndes
Summary: Jo and Zane have a secret to keep, but is that even possible in Eureka? Apparently, I really really needed to write more than sleep so yes, I was up all night, but this is it: I'm done. I hope you enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Not my characters, of course. That said, this is the third episode (fourth story) of my own alternate Eureka timeline: if you haven't read _Better Late Than Never_, _An Australian Werewolf in Eureka_, and _The BOUS Problem_, parts of this story might not make much sense, starting with the butter pecan ice cream and continuing…well, all the way to the end, which I'm not going to tell you about yet. :)

**Chapter One**

With the bees calm and tranquil, the beekeeper carefully set down the smoker and pulled the wooden frame out of the white hive. He held it up to the light: beautiful. The honeycombs were perfectly formed, and the honey behind the wax looked dark and rich. He'd stayed patient for months while the bees did their work, but now he couldn't wait to get the honey into his lab to test it.

His excitement made him careless. Turning with the frame still in hand, he tripped over the smoker and fell against the hive.

Most of the bees were too stoned on smoke and their own honey to care, but a few reacted in bee-like fashion: an attack on the hive roused the instinct to fight to the death. Three of them managed to sting, quickly lodging their barbs under the skin of the scientist, who swore in annoyance. He should have worn full protective covering, but he'd been raising bees for decades and a few stings were nothing.

A few stings from normal bees, that was.

He stumbled his way to the door of his experimental greenhouse and apiary, shoving it open, and then falling through. What was happening? He felt dizzy, head rushing as his lips went numb and his hands went cold. He landed on his side, managing to save the honeycomb by pushing it away from him as he fell. But the impact damaged a corner of the wax, and as his eyes closed, he saw a bit of the dark, viscous liquid dripping onto the ground.

Death for the honeybees came quickly—barbs ripped from their abdomens, they would die within minutes, although their attack pheromones would linger for hours. So would the scientist, lying on the ground in Eureka's unseasonably warm autumn weather, the door to the apiary wedged open by his body.

Two doors down, Jo was propped up on her side, watching Zane sleep. They were both going to be late to work, but she wasn't thinking about that. She was also going to have to skip her morning workout, something she hated, but she wasn't thinking about that, either.

The night before, after relieving months of pent-up sexual tension in her new kitchen, they'd eaten turkey sandwiches and partially-melted butter pecan ice cream—which they'd both agreed wasn't half bad, but no Rocky Road—by the unlit fireplace in her new living room. Then they'd tried out her new bedroom floor (she should really have gotten carpeting instead of hardwood), shared a shower in her new bathroom, and finally agreed—sometime after midnight—that beds were awfully nice and not at all over-rated and that a quick trip to Zane's apartment was in order.

With the lateness of the hour and the dark of the night, she hadn't noticed much. But in the early morning light, she'd realized that Zane's apartment—this Zane's apartment—was noticeably different from the old timeline Zane's apartment, and that had started her thinking.

"Do I smell coffee?" It was a half-awake mumble. His eyes didn't open.

Jo's lips curved. "You do." She'd put a cup on the bedside table before crawling back into bed with him.

His eyelashes fluttered, and suddenly his blue eyes were looking at her, still not quite awake. "That wasn't a dream."

"Nope," she agreed, a little complacently.

"Wow," his eyes closed again, but only for a second or two, and then he was rolling over, pulling her back down next to him, landing on top of her. She gave out a little shriek of surprise, and then laughed, looking up at him.

"Best dream ever," he said, capturing her mouth with his own. She opened to him, feeling the immediate rush of warmth, the glow as he explored her with his lips and tongue, one hand stroking while he rested his weight on the other arm. She wrapped herself around him, loving the heat, the touch, the texture of his skin. They murmured words the way that lovers do; good, here, so sweet, yes, touch me, now, oh…until finally he was inside her and they were moving together and all there was in the world was the moment they were in and the place where they were together.

When her breathing had slowed and the sweat had cooled, Jo said prosaically, "Now we're going to be really late to work."

"We could call in sick," he suggested, head still buried in her neck.

"I can't," she said, tempted but unable to bring herself to abandon her responsibilities. "I've still got work to do cleaning up that whole bat mess, and I have to fill out the final paperwork for Kwon. He didn't have family in Eureka, so we need to notify his next of kin, and they deserve to know as soon as possible. I should really have done it yesterday."

Zane nodded, finally pulling away from her. He looked at her and grinned, "I'd say we could shower together to save time, but I don't think that would really work. Do you want the bathroom first?"

She smiled back at him, accepting his offer, and gesturing with her head to the coffee cup on the bedside table. "That's why I brought you coffee. It was a bribe."

"Perfect. I'll have coffee in bed while I imagine you in my shower. And think about having the same morning for the next fifty or sixty years."

"Ah." Jo took a deep breath, and bit her lip. "About that…"

Zane frowned.

"We can't tell anyone," she said quickly. "And I can't wear the ring. Not yet." She looked at him searchingly. Would he understand? "It's not that I don't want to. I so want to. I would start planning our life together today if I could. Not to mention the wedding. But…I've never even been in this apartment before. And it's not just us at stake. If people realize there's something wrong, the sanctions for…"

Halfway through her words, he started to nod and before she could finish, he put one finger against her lips to silence her. "I understand. You're not the impulsive type and if you start acting too out of character, it could be dangerous. It's okay."

She smiled with relief, and shaped a kiss against his silencing finger. Reaching up, he curved his hand around the back of her head and pulled her back to him for a real kiss.

Before it could get too serious, she broke it off and said, "Okay, I need to shower, before we're insanely late." She touched his cheek and with one last smile, slipped out of the bed and walked across the room, totally unselfconscious in her nudity.

He watched her walk, reaching for his coffee without looking at it, but she stopped in the doorway and turned back to him. She looked as if she wanted to ask a question, but paused, hesitant. "What?" he asked, hand on the already cool cup.

"Um, did you clean for me?" she asked, "Because this is a different apartment anyway, but…"

He laughed, and admitted the truth. "I did think you might be coming over after our picnic on Saturday, so, yeah. I figured you being military and all, chances were you'd be neater than me."

"Ah, is pretty much everyone on the planet neater than you?"

"Well…yeah." He picked up the coffee cup and brought it to his mouth.

Jo heaved a sigh that mixed relief and resignation. "I'm glad to know some things don't change. At least, I think I'm glad."

He laughed again and toasted her with the coffee cup as she turned and disappeared.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"Where have you been?" Fargo's voice was anguished.

The elevator door had just opened. Jo hadn't even had a chance to get out of it yet. She glanced at the GD scientists who were in there with her: none were familiar, so she didn't bother to apologize for Fargo, just walked out and pulled him away from the door.

"What, I'm an hour late and the world ends? Come off it," she hissed at him. Yes, she was late, but no, she didn't think that was worth hitting the panic button over. The position of Chief of Security at GD didn't come with a time-card: Jo was hardly ever late, but it wasn't because anyone was tracking her time by the minute. "We were chasing robot bats all weekend. The least you can do is let me have an extra hour of sleep."

"You don't understand," he hissed back, glancing around frantically, and then grabbing her arm and towing her hastily toward his office.

Jo's heart started to sink. There was only reason why Fargo would want to be in his own office—sonic protocols. He needed to tell her something that no one else could possibly overhear. And there was no way that was good news.

"Mansfield is on his way," Fargo barely managed to flip the switch to turn the sonic protocols on before bursting out with the news. "And he has some big-wig investigator with him. This is the D.E.D. investigation and everyone involved is going to have to testify."

Jo took a deep breath. "Relax," she ordered Fargo. She glanced out of the huge glass windows to the rotunda below: people were passing by, some still arriving for the workday, but no one seemed to be paying attention to the director looking frantic in his upstairs office. Still, perhaps it was better not to be so obvious. She pushed the button that darkened the windows, giving the office a little more privacy.

"Relax? How can I relax? This is disastrous. This is—"

"Cut it out," Jo snapped at Fargo. "This is nothing."

Fargo rolled his eyes. "Nothing?"

"Nothing," Jo grabbed Fargo's shoulder and shook him. "We did not steal the D.E.D. Remember? We had nothing to do with this. We tried to convince Mansfield not to let the D.E.D. leave the premises. Our only responsibility in this mess is that we didn't trust our own instincts enough to stand up to Mansfield. This has nothing to do with time travel."

Fargo collapsed into his chair, dropping his head into his hands.

"You're right," he said weakly. "But this is terrifying. Mansfield's investigation could destroy us all."

"No," Jo said firmly. "We are not the people who screwed up on this one. Yes, we need to keep a few things…well, let's say out of the official record. But this has nothing to do with us. You need to focus, Fargo. Focus. This investigation is about who started the resonance events and who stole the D.E.D., and that's it."

"But Grant is gone, " Fargo's voice was not quite a whine.

"And Grant wasn't responsible," Jo's voice wasn't quite yelling.

"But without Grant, the only ones left in the room when the containment shield failed were me and Zane. We need someone else to blame."

"Mansfield doesn't need to know why the containment protecting the D.E.D. failed. It could have been because of the resonance events. That's what you and Zane thought, right?"

Fargo sighed. "But that really made no sense. The power surges were erratic, and the fluctuation caused by the resonance…"

"The general is not a scientist." Jo interrupted. "If the explanation was good enough for you at the time, it's good enough for him."

"But he's not the one we have to worry about. This investigator he's bringing with him is going to be scrutinizing everything that's happened." Fargo tugged anxiously at the knot in his tie, loosening it a little. He was pale and anxious, the authority and confidence he'd started to develop as director of GD temporarily lost in his worry.

"I"ll say it again: we weren't responsible. We, in fact, recovered the D.E.D. device, and even though Beverly escaped, we saw enough to learn that she was involved. You need to take a deep breath, Fargo, and try to relax, or you're going to look suspicious when there's no reason to. Everyone has secrets, and ours have nothing to do with how the D.E.D. device was stolen." Jo couldn't help a small smile at the thought of her secrets. The day might be rapidly going downhill, but the glow from how it had started hadn't faded yet.

"They have everything to do with why it was stolen," Fargo's words were challenging, but Jo could see that he'd started to calm down. And even though he had a point, she just wasn't afraid. The big secret was the time travel, and your average law enforcement professionals would laugh that idea out of the room. And probably mercilessly mock the person who came up with it with a never-ending stream of time-travel-related practical jokes.

"What do we know about the investigator?" she asked him. If the investigator was a rigid, by-the-books type, she wasn't going to worry, but if he was an out-of-the-box thinker, they might need to be more careful.

"Nothing," Fargo sighed. "Not even a name."

"Well, what branch of the service is he with? Is he from the Army's criminal investigation division? FBI, CIA? Secret Service?" Between Carter's contacts from past law-enforcement jobs and Jo's own connections in the military, she was confident that they'd be able to quickly learn something about the investigator's style.

Fargo was shaking his head. "I've got nothing. Nothing except an arrival time of…" he glanced at his watch. "Oh, shoot, five minutes ago. Hurry, we've got to get to the helipad."

"Then let's go," Jo tilted her head in acknowledgment, gesturing for Fargo to go first. He hit the button to remove the sonic protocols as he passed it, and she paused to open the high-tech shade darkening the window glass.

"Whoa, wait," she grabbed at his sleeve. They were too late. Mansfield was striding across the rotunda floor as if he owned the place, followed by a dark-haired woman who was glancing around, an expression of intent and curious interest on her face.

"That must be the investigator," Fargo said, catching sight of where Jo was looking.

"Does she…look familiar?" asked Jo, frowning. The woman was probably in her mid-forties, attractive and nicely dressed in a professional suit in a royal blue. Her dark hair was thick and wavy, shoulder-length and stylishly cut.

"Maybe?" said Fargo, doubtfully. Mansfield and the woman had disappeared into the archway and were on their way up. "I didn't get a good look at her."

"I think I know her." Jo's face was thoughtful. "But I'm not sure from where."

She didn't have time to think more about it, as Larry was ushering General Mansfield and his guest into Fargo's office, but in the exchange of greetings, Jo took a moment to covertly eye the woman a little more. She was older than Jo had guessed initially, her fair skin showing the small lines of age, and Jo upped her estimate by at least another decade, placing her in her mid-fifties. She was beautiful, though, with intense blue eyes and a warm smile that she was currently bestowing on Fargo, as she shook his hand.

General Mansfield introduced them all brusquely, "Diana Prince, with the Inter-Agency Defense Command. Dr. Fargo, Director of GD, and Ms. Lupo, Chief of Security."

The warm smile was being turned on her now, and Jo's nagging sense of familiarity intensified, as Diana said, "I've heard so much about you, Ms. Lupo. I've been very much looking forward to meeting you."

"Diana Prince?" Fargo blurted out, swallowing hard. "Is that—the Diana Prince?"

"You know the old stories," Diana chuckled indulgently. "All that's nonsense, of course. Flattering, but absurd."

"Of course," Fargo's voice was strangled. He threw a desperate glance at Jo, who tried to read his mind but failed. She had no idea what he knew, but he obviously knew something. Her sense of unease deepened and she shifted uncomfortably.

"As you know, she's here to investigate the theft of the D.E.D. We want to start by speaking to Donovan," Mansfield snapped out the words.

Jo exchanged a quick look with Fargo. "We cleared Dr. Donovan of any involvement…" she started to say.

Diana held up one hand to stop her and put the other on General Mansfield's sleeve. "Let's start a little slower than that, shall we?" she said cheerfully. "I'm going to want to interview quite a few people over the course of the next several days, so I'll need an office. Is there a convenient place, preferably with recording equipment and cameras already available? And then yes, I will want to speak with Dr. Donovan first."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Jo was driving too fast. She knew she should slow down-the winding roads around Eureka could be deceptively empty, and she was swinging wide in the curves because of her speed. A head-on collision wouldn't do anyone any good. But knowing and doing were two different things.

Something was wrong.

"Call Zane," she ordered her car. The voice-activated phone dialed, and then rang. And rang. And rang again, before his voice mail picked up with an insouciant, "Yo, leave a message and I'll get back to ya."

"Disconnect," Jo's eyes never left the road. She barreled through the next three curves. Where could he be? They hadn't gone into GD together, because she'd needed to go by the smart house and change into work clothes. But he'd been almost ready to leave. He should have gotten to work before her.

And why wasn't he answering his phone?

The quickest solution to Diana Prince's need for an office had been to give her Jo's for the day, since it was already set up to record both sound and video when needed. A gushing, ever-helpful Larry was arranging for another room to be set up so that Jo could have her office back, but meanwhile they could start the interviews without waiting. Except that Diana insisted - in a friendly yet firm sort of way that Jo almost admired - that Zane be first, and Zane was nowhere to be found. He wasn't in his office, he wasn't answering his phone, and a quick check of the security logs indicated that he'd never shown up that morning.

So where was he?

Mansfield had immediately jumped to the worst conclusion, of course. "He knew we were coming," he'd growled. "He's running. Get the state police to seal the roads. We need to find out what he knows."

Jo had opened her mouth, ready to say something, although she had no idea what, but she'd been forestalled by Diana, who asked Mansfield pointedly, "I requested that my visit be kept completely confidential: how would he have learned that we were here? We only told the director after we were in flight and that was on a secure line."

Mansfield had sputtered something, and Fargo hastily said, "I told no one except Jo, and that was under sonic protocols. There's no way the information leaked from here at GD."

"And since I'm sure that you and your team didn't reveal anything, either, General, I think we can assume for the moment that Dr. Donovan is simply late to work." Diana smiled sweetly at the General before turning to Jo. "Can we send someone to look for him?"

"Of course," Jo had nodded. "But are you sure you wouldn't rather start with someone else? We did clear Zane. We don't believe that he has any involvement with the theft," she finished a little desperately.

"Thank you, but no," Diana turned the smile on Jo, and Jo felt an instinctive urge to straighten her back and stick her chin out. There was something almost scary about this woman. She was charming, but with a will of iron underneath. "I will, however, let Dr. Fargo give me a tour, while you track down Dr. Donovan."

"It would be a honor," a flustered Fargo was almost stumbling over his words. He gestured for Diana and the general to go out the door ahead of him, and threw a panicked glance over his shoulder at Jo. He mouthed some words…but what had they been?

Jo braked hard before taking the next curve, letting the tail of her sporty blue car swing out like a race car. Two mysteries and she was unhappy about both of them. Where was Zane, and who was Diana Prince?

Aha!

"Call Carter," she ordered.

Carter, thankfully, picked up on the first ring.

"Hey, Jo. S.A.R.A.H. and I missed you last night," he said teasingly.

"Have you seen Zane?" Jo asked urgently, ignoring his greeting.

"Uh, weren't you with him?" Carter said dubiously. "I mean, no, I haven't seen him this morning."

"I was, but…can you check Café Diem?"

"That's where I am and he's not here. Hey, Vincent, have you seen Zane this morning?" Carter asked, and then reported to Jo, "He hasn't been in today."

"Where the hell is he?" Jo muttered. She'd reached the outskirts of town, so reluctantly she started to slow the car.

"What's the problem?" Carter asked, his voice serious now, as he began to understand just how worried Jo was.

"The investigator is here to look into the theft of the D.E.D.," Jo reported. "She wants to talk to Zane first, which would be bad enough, but he didn't show up to work."

"She?" Carter questioned. "The investigator is a woman?"

"You are not questioning whether women can be in law enforcement, are you?" asked Jo, annoyed by Carter's tone.

"No, no, of course not. It's just…well, you know yourself, Jo, that there aren't a lot of women at the top of the military hierarchy."

"The commanding general of the Army's Criminal Investigation Division is a woman named Colleen McGuire, Carter," Jo pointed out dryly.*

"Is she who's here?" he asked.

"No, and that's the other thing you can help me with." Jo stopped at a stop sign, and glanced both ways. She was still wanting to rush, but this was a residential area and she wasn't going to take any chances with pedestrians. "The investigator is a woman named Diana Prince, and Fargo is freaking out about that."

"Ha, ha, very funny." Carter chuckled. "I suppose she works for the Inter-Agency Defense Command?"

"Yes, she does," Jo said slowly, eyes scanning the street. There was Zane's bike. That was a good sign. "Hey, I'm at Zane's apartment, I'm going to have you call you back."

"Wait, Jo! You're not serious about that, are you? Diana Prince from the Inter-Agency Defense Command?"**

"Yes, why?" Jo was distracted. Was that…"Carter, I have to go. I'll call you back." Without waiting for an answer, she jumped out of the car and ran for the door of Zane's building.

She took in the scene at a glance. Zane was lying, face-down, in the grass off the sidewalk, his helmet several feet away as if he'd dropped it and staggered before falling. She dropped to her knees next to him, sliding her fingers around his neck to feel for a pulse without moving him. There, yes, a heartbeat.

There was no blood on his back. Hurriedly, she rolled him, searching for signs of damage. She ripped at his black leather jacket, pulling it open. Still no sign of blood. "Zane, wake up," she ordered him, gently searching his head for signs of injury.

Nothing.

But his skin was gray, and his breathing so shallow she could barely see his chest moving. "Zane, come on, Zane, don't do this to me," she entreated him. She grabbed a pinch of skin and twisted it, hard, but he didn't flinch and his eyelids didn't flicker.

Pulling out her phone, she called for a GD ambulance. Her voice was calm, her eyes were dry. But inwardly she was screaming.

_*True fact. She's the first woman to hold the job. _

_**Yes, it's a cross-over joke. Punchline probably in the next chapter if no one gets it.  
_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

The ambulance was obeying the speed limit. Jo was tempted to lean on her horn to speed it up: she wanted Zane in Alison's hands at GD as quickly as possible. But she had the self-control not to - for all she knew, stuck here as she was in the driver's seat of her own car, the paramedics already had Zane revived, and he was sitting up and talking to them. Flirting with the cute one, most likely.

And then the lights started flashing, and the siren started blaring, and the ambulance accelerated away.

Her hands tightened on her steering wheel and her foot stepped hard on the gas.

Their entry into GD was a blur to Jo, a whirlwind of activity with the paramedics rushing a motionless Zane on a gurney through the hallways. He had an oxygen mask covering his face, and an IV bag draped across his chest.

"What do we know?" Alison demanded, rushing to his side as they entered the infirmary. The paramedics babbled: blood oxygen, respiration, heart rate - the numbers seemed entirely random and meaningless to Jo, who couldn't take her eyes off Zane.

"Talk to me, Jo," Alison commanded, running a scanner up and down Zane's body. "What happened to him? Was there an accident?"

Mutely, Jo shook her head. Alison glanced up at her, and frowned, then turned back to her monitors. "Tell me what happened," Alison repeated, more gently. "Anything you know might help."

"He was just on the ground," Jo's voice broke on the last word and she blinked furiously, stepping forward and grabbing Zane's cool hand. "It looked as if he was on his way to work, and passed out. He was face-down, so he might have been unconscious before he hit the ground."

Alison turned his other hand over and examined it. "No abrasions," she reported, "so he didn't try to break his fall. But I'm not finding any injuries that would explain this. " She looked intently at Zane, pushing back his eyelids, and shining a light in each eye . "All right, we're going to take blood, and run some tests. And we're going to pump his stomach, too." She turned to the other medical personnel nearby and started delivering orders in a crisp, professional voice.

"Pump his stomach?" Jo repeated. "You think he took a drug overdose?"

Alison looked at her sympathetically. "I think that sounds extremely unlikely. But some kind of poison is my best bet at the moment. I'll check his blood for everything possible, but if it was in something he ingested, his stomach contents will tell us more."

Jo nodded, still clutching Zane's hand. Alison gently touched her arm. "You'll need to wait outside for this." Reluctantly, Jo let go, and watched Alison and the medical team wheel Zane away.

"Jo, what's happened?" Fargo burst into the infirmary, General Mansfield and Diana Prince nowhere in sight. "Larry said you brought Zane in on a stretcher?"

"He was unconscious, lying on the ground outside when I got there," Jo's eyes stayed focused on the door, her hand holding on to her necklace. "Alison thinks he might have been poisoned somehow."

"Oh, no," Fargo moaned. "Is he going to be okay? Ms. Prince is absolutely set on interviewing him." He glanced behind him, checking to make sure that the general and Diana hadn't arrived yet, and his voice dropped. "Do you know who she is?"

Jo looked at him, finally breaking out of her intense focus. "I told you she looked familiar, but no. Who is she?"

"Wonder Woman," Fargo whispered.

Despite her distraction, the absurdity of the statement made Jo snort. "That's insane, Fargo. This is not a comic book. And she does not have a golden lasso."

"No, no," Fargo shook his head. "In the 1970s, a guy who worked for DC Comics wrote a whole series of comics about Wonder Woman as a real person, with no super powers. He claimed that they were based on a woman intelligence agent who'd been named after Wonder Woman's alias."*

Jo was shaking her head. "No, really, no. That is just silly."

"He was actually an undercover agent for the government. It was one of the things I looked up as soon as I got top-secret clearance!" Fargo's voice was earnest.

"You got a top-secret security clearance and used it to try to find out whether a comic-book author was telling the truth about a comic-book story? That…" Jo paused. Actually, that did sound just like Fargo. Ridiculous, yes, but like Fargo. She shook her head and sighed, "I'm pretty sure I don't recognize her from the comics, Fargo."

"Well, whatever, she's famous for always getting to the truth of a mystery. We need to be really, really careful or we're screwed. And you know…" Fargo's voice was rising and Jo kicked him quickly. General Mansfield and Diana Prince were in the doorway; Mansfield frowning and Diana looking around with that same expression of alert interest. Jo felt that sense of nagging familiarity - she knew this woman from somewhere, but where?

"What's happened?" Mansfield barked.

"I found Dr. Donovan lying unconscious by his door, sir," Jo reported, her voice even. She glanced back at the door that Alison had taken Zane through and frowned. How long did it take to pump a stomach? Hadn't she already been standing here for an eternity? She fiddled nervously with the ring on the chain around her neck.

"Unconscious? Why?" Mansfield sounded puzzled.

"No idea, sir. Dr. Blake thinks possibly poison."

"Ah, his accomplices must have tried to ensure his silence." Jo sighed at Mansfield's ability to jump to the wrong conclusion, and then frowned as she thought a little more about it.

"Not necessarily his accomplices," she said. "But if Zane…" she swallowed hard. "If Zane were to die, would you assume that you'd found the guilty party and halt the investigation? Maybe especially if the death looked like a drug overdose?"

"I…" Mansfield looked uncertain. "Well, yes. If Donovan died of a drug overdose, the investigation would hit a dead end."

Diana Prince was frowning. Jo glanced at her and knew that if she'd answered the question, her response would have been very different. Jo raised her eyebrows, silently asking for her answer.

"If Dr. Donovan died," Diana Prince said carefully, blue eyes steady, "I would spend however long it took to dig through every minute of every life in Eureka to find out who was responsible. I would not quit until the responsible party had been caught and convicted."

Mansfield harrumphed. Fargo looked pleadingly at Jo. Jo looked steadily at Diana Prince, and then nodded.

"But they couldn't have known that," she said. "Zane was framed for this once. Beverly used plans he'd created and information he had to make it look as if he were guilty. But we caught up with her because he put the pieces together for us. And he was in jail through much of it, so we knew it couldn't be him."

"So you're suggesting that the real guilty parties were trying to cover their tracks by killing Donovan?" Mansfield frowned.

"We don't know enough yet, sir," Jo responded evenly. "But yes, I think that's possible. The weather is unseasonably warm. On a colder day, if I hadn't been looking for him, he might have…" she stopped, pressing her lips together firmly. She wasn't sure she could get the words out.

At that moment, Alison came through the door, her face worried.

"Dr. Blake," Fargo said with relief. "How's Zane? Any news?"

"He's holding on, but it's not good." Alison shook her head. "We're running every test we can think of on his blood but so far nothing. As for his stomach contents, it looks as if he'd only had coffee, no food. We'll start testing that now."

"It's not the coffee," Jo said.

"We can't know that, Jo," Alison said with mild reproof.

"We can know that," Jo said firmly. With a single hard tug, she yanked the chain around her neck, breaking it. Holding the ring, she let the chain flow through its circle and drop to the floor. "I made the coffee myself, and I drank some. It's not the coffee." She slid the ring onto her left-hand ring finger.

"Oh, Jo, I…" Alison grabbed her hand and squeezed, then dropped a quick kiss on her cheek. "I'll go tell them to focus on the blood and forget the stomach contents."

"Is that…" Mansfield's face was red. Fargo winced, waiting for the explosion.

"That's a beautiful ring," Diana Prince's eyes were narrowed. "May I?" She picked up Jo's hand and examined the ring more closely, then nodded slowly, a curious expression in her eyes.

"Are you insane?" Mansfield finally burst out. "Are you really involved with that…that criminal? Lupo, I'm surprised at you. You're head of security here at GD; you need to think about what this relationship could do to your career."

"Are you threatening me, General?" The light in Jo's eyes was fierce.

"He's a criminal!" Mansfield stormed. "You're letting him cloud your judgment. I don't care if he was in jail when the device was stolen - he's undoubtedly responsible. He's the only person in Eureka who would sell out his government that way."

"Zane would never…" started Jo, but she didn't get a chance to finish.

"Excuse me, General," Diana's voice was smooth but with an undercurrent of danger that drew everyone's attention. "You might want to rethink that position. I can assure you that Zane Donovan is no traitor. A rebel, maybe. A terrible sense of humor, definitely. Much too prone to thinking that rules are made for other people and that security was meant to be tested, absolutely. But not a traitor."

"Donovan is a felon. He belongs in prison, and if I have my way, that's where he's headed as soon as he wakes up." General Mansfield's voice had gotten louder and louder as his rage grew.

Diana took two steps forward, stepping into Mansfield's personal space, her eyes narrowed, and her lips tight. "Zane is also my son. And I don't appreciate people insulting my boy."

_* Info in that paragraph is almost true, true, and false…in the 1960's (not 70's), a series of DC comics starred a super-power-less Wonder Woman, but no one ever claimed that she was based on a real person. Wouldn't it be cool if it was, though? As for why I changed the dates…well, my real inspiration was Lynda Carter who was Wonder Woman in the 70s and who would be a really great mom for Zane. Picture her when you picture Diana._

_A/N: To be honest, my curiosity about what Zane's mom would be like was what drove this story. The fact that he likes kickass girls made me think that maybe she'd be kind of kickass herself. That made me start imagining her and…here we are. But although I do have the rest of the plot outlined (and the bee stuff is kind of cool), I'm not sure how inspired I am to write it. If I don't get around to it…well, I apologize in advance. I personally like stories that end, but rest assured that this one ends happily, whether I write it or not! _


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: So I thought I was going to stop…but then Allyrien said she was kind of dying to see Fargo's reaction, and I realized that I was, too. And several other nice people said kind things that made me smile and feel like maybe writing this was actually as satisfying as killing harpies in WOW. And then FireEthereal …well, you pushed me over the edge with the puppy dog eyes. Plus, Diana kept complaining in my head - she wanted to get on with things! I hope you enjoy. And yes, there will be a chapter six. _

**Chapter Five **

Fargo was the one who broke the silence. Jo suspected that fifty years from now she would still be able to remember the expression on his face-a mingling of horror and awe and a suppressed reluctant delight that came from watching Mansfield's eyes go wide with shock-suddenly replaced by realization.

"Oh, my God. That means that Zane is Wonder Boy."

Diana tore her gaze from Mansfield to look at Fargo, and reluctantly smiled. "It is just a nickname, you know - brought about by the coincidences. I have nothing to do with the comic book character. And Zane obviously didn't choose to follow in my footsteps, probably because having a mother at the highest reaches of government law enforcement wasn't good for him. I was gone too much while he was growing up." A fleeting look of regret touched her face before she turned back to Mansfield, and added pointedly, "But that doesn't make him a super villain."

The interruption, however, had given Mansfield a chance to regain his composure, and he quickly blustered, "But it does give you a clear conflict of interest. You shouldn't be in charge of this investigation."

"The Department of Defense disagrees." Diana took another step forward and Mansfield retreated a step. "In fact, if anyone has a conflict of interest here, General, it's you. You bear ultimate responsibility for everything that happens at Global Dynamics. The disappearance of the D.E.D. device happened on your watch, as a direct result of your decisions. It's natural that you'd want to look for the nearest scapegoat. But the government doesn't want easy answers, General; they want the truth. That's why I'm here."

Mansfield looked dumbfounded and was silenced for the moment. Fargo and Jo exchanged looks. Jo felt almost nauseous. _The truth? _That would be very, very bad. She was slowly starting to realize what a disaster this truly was. Zane's mom had obviously recognized the ring. But Zane - at least in the old timeline - talked with his mom every week. Their relationship might have had its challenges, but it was close and loving. If it was anything like that in this timeline, then Diana Prince must be absolutely mystified right now. And a mystified investigator with a reputation for insight, persistence, and the successful closing of difficult cases? Well, under the circumstances, that was a recipe for disaster.

"In fact, General, since uncovering the truth has now become a matter of the utmost urgency with my son's life possibly at stake, I think I'd like to start by interviewing you," Diana's voice was grim.

She turned to Fargo. "The General and I will meet in Ms. Lupo's office. After I finish interviewing him, I'd like to see…" she paused and seemed to think. "First, your assistant. Larry, right? Then Henry Deacon, then you." She glanced at her watch. "That should take us through most of the afternoon. Please ask the Sheriff to join us at Ms. Lupo's office around 4."

Fargo nodded weakly. "Of course." Jo could see the thoughts playing on his face: _Larry? Why would she want to see Larry? What does Larry know?_

Diana directed her attention to Jo next. "You and I? We should talk." Her expression was so exactly like Zane's when he said something similar from jail after Jo had thrown the ring at him that Jo couldn't imagine how she hadn't seen the relationship the moment Diana walked across the rotunda. That said, Diana was terrifying in a way that Zane couldn't come close to competing with.

"But first things first," Diana continued. "If Zane was poisoned, our priority has to be to find the poisoner and the poison: I'll work on the who, but you'll need to work on the how and the what."

Jo nodded. "I'll check his lab, and his apartment, and see if I can find any traces of anything. We can get Andy to canvass the neighborhood and see if anyone saw any suspicious activity this morning."

"Dr. Fargo's initial report claimed that Beverly Barlow was involved," Diana said the words neutrally but Jo couldn't help noting her word choice. _Claim_? It didn't feel good.

"She managed to escape while we were securing the D.E.D. device, but there were plenty of witnesses: Henry, Carter and Alison will confirm that she was there," Jo reported quickly.

"Henry, Carter, and Alison." Diana said the names as if she was taking notes. If her memory was anything like Zane's, notes, of course, were completely unnecessary. "Alison is Dr. Alison Blake?"

Jo nodded. She could see Fargo swallow hard over Diana's shoulder. She had just provided Diana with the exact list of the members of their conspiracy. Was that…_bad?_

"I'll need to interview Dr. Blake," Diana said thoughtfully, looking in the direction that Alison had disappeared. She looked back at Jo's face, then dropped her gaze to Jo's hand, before returning to her eyes. Jo met her look as evenly as she could and resisted the urge to shift uncomfortably. Guilty knowledge was a heavy burden under these circumstances, but Jo reminded herself firmly that her guilt, and her secrets, had nothing to do with the D.E.D. device - and certainly nothing to do with harming Zane.

She could see Diana thinking, assessing possibilities, considering, and she looked so much like Zane that Jo felt a sudden stab of panic as she remembered her last glimpse of Zane's unresponsive face, passive and quiescent under the oxygen mask. Her eyes abruptly filled and she glanced back in Zane's direction as she blurted, "You look…"

Diana raised her eyebrows questioningly as Jo stopped.

Jo shook her head, and finished, "…so much like him." She pressed her lips together firmly, and blinked hard. She looked away, unable to continue meeting Diana's eyes. She would not cry, dammit. She never cried.

Diana's gaze dropped to the ring again, and then she nodded, as if making a decision. "Dr. Blake also has other priorities right now, so I won't worry about interviewing her quite yet. But perhaps you could ask the sheriff to send all of Eureka's traffic camera footage up to GD? I assume that your security system has the latest facial recognition software, but if not, I'll uplink to the IADC system. I want to know the name of every person who drove through Eureka in the last two days."

"Can you really do that?" asked Fargo, impressed.

"Our facial recognition software is good, but its database only contains GD employees and Eureka residents. And we've never linked it to traffic cameras." Jo was grateful to focus on security concerns again. Thinking about Zane was much too painful.

"Perfect,"nodded Diana. "The smaller database means that the search and identification will be fast. We can use a mapping package on the data, and within a few hours, we should be able to track the movements of every resident of Eureka over the last forty-eight hours. Then we can send any unidentified footage up to IADC using everything we know about Beverly Barlow to define search parameters. With any luck, we'll know if anyone connected to her has been in Eureka within the day."

Jo nodded. Fargo looked awed. Mansfield was still silently fuming.

"But first," said Diana, and for just a moment, she didn't look tough at all, she looked as scared and worried as any mom whose kid was in danger, "First, I'd like to see my son."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Zane looked terrible, but part of that was the respirator. The ugly plastic tube emerging from his mouth was basic and utilitarian, but it was also deeply disturbing.

"Alison?" Jo turned toward Alison, her voice both a protest and a question; she wanted reassurance as much as information.

"I know," Alison said comfortingly. "But he's not breathing on his own, Jo. I'm debating med-evacing him to OSHU in Portland, but I don't know what they could do any better. Until we understand what's wrong with him, we have to keep him oxygenated."

Diana had gone pale, and Jo almost automatically grabbed her hand, squeezing hard. "Are you okay?"

"I usually hear about things like this only after they're all over." Diana reached out and cupped Zane's cheek with her free hand, not letting go of Jo.

Alison looked confused. Jo said, "This is Zane's mom," realizing that Alison had already returned to Zane's bloodwork when Diana revealed herself.

Alison's confusion changed to surprise, then quickly to worry. "Are you…? Is this…? I'm so sorry," she said simply, after fumbling for words. "We're doing everything we can for him. I have every lab tech in the medical center running tests on his blood to try to figure out what's causing this."

Diana nodded, still staring at Zane's still face. "Tell me what you know," she finally said, turning to Alison.

"Not enough," Alison said bluntly. "He's in a coma: on the Glasgow coma scale, which is how we measure neurological consciousness, he's scoring a 3, which means totally non-responsive. If he had signs of brain injury,which would usually be what would cause this, I'd be very worried. But there are no signs of damage. His head hasn't been injured, and his pupils are responsive. But something is causing his nervous system to…not function."

"Every part of his nervous system?" Diana asked slowly.

Alison shook her head hastily. "His heart is beating. He doesn't seem to be able to move, he's not responsive to pain, and he's not breathing on his own, but his brain scans show that his brain is fine. He might even be able to hear us."

Diana chuckled faintly. Pushing his hair off his forehead, she leaned down to him and whispered something in his ear, then stood. There was no sign of a response, but she smiled anyway, although her eyes were filled with tears.

"All right," she said, sighing. "I'm going to start interviewing people. If this is connected to the theft of the D.E.D. device, I will find out." Her voice was determined.

Her grip tightened briefly on Jo's hand, and then she let go. She took a deep breath, and gave Jo one last thoughtful glance. And then with one final caress of Zane's face, Diana turned and moved away decisively, summoning General Mansfield and Fargo to join her with nothing more than a slight nod.

Alison glanced at Jo, and dropping her voice, asked "What's going on?"

"Zane's mom is the investigator the Department of Defense sent to find out what happened to the D.E.D.." Jo leaned forward, and whispered into Zane's ear, "So wake up, dammit, because she is scary."

"The D.O.D. sent Zane's mom to investigate?" Alison was stunned.

Jo shook her head and said dryly, "No, the D.O.D. sent their top investigator, a world-renowned intelligence agent, notorious for solving tough cases…who just happens to also be Zane's mom." She leaned forward again, but this time didn't bother to whisper. "So wake up, dammit, because she is scary!"

There was no movement and she sighed. She looked over at Alison. "Do you really think he can hear us?"

Alison shrugged. "Tough to say, but it's possible."

Jo reached out and took his hand. She needed to go start her part of the investigation: searching his lab and his apartment for any kind of toxins, or any sign of poison. And she should call Carter, fill him in on what was happening, ask for Andy to start canvassing Zane's neighborhood. But all she wanted to do was to sit next to Zane, holding his hand as if by doing so she could force him to hold on to life.

She brought his hand to her mouth and turned it to press a kiss in the palm, like her mother used to do for her - a kiss to hold on to. "Alison?" she asked, startled. "What's this?"

Alison leaned forward to take a look. "That's odd." There was a small pink swelling on the side of Zane's palm, across from his thumb. "That looks like a bee sting."

Their eyes met in wild surmise. "No way," Alison shook her head. "A bee sting couldn't do this. Let me get some equipment that will let me take a closer look." She hurried away.

Jo set Zane's hand down carefully. "A bee sting?" she said to him. "Were you playing with Parrish's killer bees again?"

"Killer bees?" Carter asked, startling Jo, who jumped and turned toward him.

"Oh, hey, Carter."

"Fargo filled me in. How are you doing?" Carter's voice was filled with concern.

"Better than Zane," Jo said. "This day started really well," she added sadly.

"So I see," he said, nodding towards her ring. "Fargo told me."

"If I'd had any idea that she was Zane's mom…" Jo dropped her voice, looking around to see if anyone was close enough to overhear. "I may have made a huge mistake. Zane talks to his mom. There's no way he would have kept a serious relationship from her, and here…well, I'm not even sure we've had a real first date yet! If he did tell her anything about me, it was that we were going on our first date two days ago. Nobody gets engaged two days after a first date."

"Except, apparently, Zane. He did ask you again?" Carter grinned.

Jo nodded, suddenly feeling shy. Had she been crazy to have said yes to him?

"Some things are meant to be," Carter said the words to Jo, but his eyes were on Alison, who was smiling at him as she approached. "So what's this about bees?"

Alison shook her head as she bent over Zane's hand. "A bee sting couldn't cause this."

"Not even a killer bee?" Jo asked.

"There's no such thing, really. Africanized bees got tagged with that name, but their stings are exactly the same as other bees - unpleasant, but only fatal if you're allergic or get stung by a huge number of them."

"Well, why are they called killer then?"

"They're more aggressive than European bees. Bees only really sting when they're defending the hive and African bees defend a bigger area, so they're more likely to sting. But…huh." Alison straightened, frowning, looking at an almost invisible barb. "That's a bee sting." Very carefully, she transferred the stinger to a vial and held it up to the light.

She glanced back at Zane and shook her head. "It almost has to be a coincidence. An allergic reaction would cause anaphylaxis, and that's not what's happening here."

"We were considering the possibility that someone had deliberately poisoned him - someone involved in the theft of the D.E.D. device. Is there any way…" Jo started.

Alison was shaking her head. "Look at how tiny that stinger is. No one could use it as a weapon. The force it would take the break the skin - no, Zane must have put his hand down on a bee. The pressure from his hand is why the stinger penetrated the skin. But, yes, I do think he's been poisoned. You need to look in a different direction, though. No one can deliver a poison through a bee stinger. I mean I'll run every test we can manage on the stinger, but it looks like a real bee stinger to me, and I don't think I'll find anything."

Jo nodded, as Alison turned away to start working on the stinger. She looked at Carter. "Can you get Andy to canvass Zane's neighborhood and see if anyone saw anything? And maybe ask him to look for a dead bee, as well?"

"Yep," Carter pulled out his phone, but before he could start to dial, Jo put a restraining hand on his arm.

"Wait - could you also ask him to check Zane's apartment for anything unusual? And then - Carter, would you check the labs where Zane works for me? I was going to do it myself, but…" she looked back at Zane. "I really want to stay here."

"Of course," Carter nodded, and moved away as he started to make the call to Andy.

Jo moved around to the other side of Zane's bed, where a stool was in easy reach. Pulling it over, she perched on it, and picked up the hand that hadn't been stung. "So, we need to talk about this first date thing," she started. "The first first-date, well, just as well you missed it. You said something smart that made me feel stupid and I kinda thought that date was going to be the last date, too. You were persistent, though, and…well, I kissed you. It was a rainy night, and we were alone in the Sheriff's office…"

_A/N This was a grueling chapter to write because Jo would just not cooperate. As a result, she's seriously messed up my outline, so the next chapter is probably going to be a little slower while I figure out how to resolve all the issues raised by the fact that she's decided to sit by Zane's bed and tell him stories of their life together instead of being a good little investigator. It will happen, though. _


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

Fargo was intent on his computer screen. Tying together the mapping application, the facial-recognition software, and the video footage from the traffic cameras - conveniently both already digital and stored on GD's servers - had been engrossing him for the last three hours.

"You're next, Fargo." Henry interrupted him and Fargo looked up reluctantly. He hadn't even heard Henry come in. He was almost done automating the process of porting the data to the mapping software to be charted. It was amazing to watch the map of Eureka be steadily populated with icons representing individuals.

"At 10 AM yesterday morning, you had to tow a car in from the highway," Fargo reported.

Henry looked surprised. "That's right. That was before the bats showed up over Main Street or that poor tourist would have had quite the story to tell."

"Eh, no one would have believed him. Robot bats are completely technically unfeasible. Outside of Eureka, no one even really understands how bats fly."* Fargo waved off Henry's concern dismissively, eyes back on his screen.

"How did you know that, though?" Henry asked.

Fargo turned the screen to show him. "Isn't it incredible?" he asked excitedly. "Diana Prince told me how to do it. I'm using the traffic cameras, facial-recognition software, and a mapping package to track everyone in Eureka. It's still working on the old footage, but I think I can get it to almost real-time tracking. And I want to tie in all the other cameras - security cameras, GD cameras - we'll be able to see where everyone is, all the time. Well, not inside their houses, of course."

"Fargo, have you ever heard of civil liberties? The right to privacy? You're turning into Big Brother before my eyes!" Henry was disgusted.

"Oh," Fargo was briefly deflated. "Yeah, those."

"How would you have liked it if some previous director of GD had been able to see your every move?" Henry pushed the point.

Fargo wrinkled his nose in distaste, and sighed. "Good point. It's really cool, though!" he added.

"I'm sure it is," sighed Henry, resigned. "And I accept that we need to use it right now. But after that, Fargo, disable it. No one in Eureka wants to be watched all the time. No one anywhere wants to be watched all the time."

Fargo sighed again. "I will." He turned the screen back in his own direction and admired his own handiwork again, briefly. "I'd know all the best gossip, though. Look, Taggart spent the night at Dr. Glenn's house."

"Like I said," Henry started, a firm look in his eye.

"I will, I will," Fargo nodded.

"Meanwhile, you're next on Ms. Prince's interview list, so you'd better get moving," Henry added.

"Oh, right." Fargo's reluctance wasn't just his unwillingness to leave his computer. He was more than nervous about this interview. He didn't want to be sanctioned for time travel, he really didn't. Although he'd been sorry that this Fargo had never even met Julia, his old timeline girlfriend, he loved this Fargo's life. Being Director of GD was sometimes stressful, but mostly it was amazingly cool. "How bad was it?"

It was Henry's turn to sigh. "If Eva Thorne was a barracuda, Diana Prince is a nest of piranhas." He shook his head. "I don't think I gave away anything but I don't know what she suspects. And some of her questions - I hope you know your favorite color."

"My favorite color? Is she a human lie detector?"

Henry shrugged. "Or that's what she wants you to think? Or wanted me to think? Don't let yourself get distracted by the fact that she's Zane's mother - first and foremost, she's an investigator on special assignment for the D.o.D."

"I'm not sure it makes a difference that she's Zane's mother, anyway," Fargo said gloomily. "It's not like I'm his favorite person."

"Is it true that Jo is wearing her ring?"

Fargo nodded. "And you should have seen Mansfield's expression," he couldn't help smiling. "It was great."

"But do you know whether-" Henry started.

Fargo shook his head. "Whether she's wearing it for this Zane or our Zane? No, I don't."

Henry hastily put a finger against his lips and Fargo winced. "I mean, no, I don't know the story yet," he said hastily, adding plaintively, "although they've seemed very happy together."

He shrugged and continued, "I will definitely delete that application as soon as we find out whether anyone connected to Beverly has been in town in the past two days." Unless sonic protocols were up, the group assumed that anything said at GD was recorded and available to anyone who wanted to listen in at the Department of Defense. Watching what they said had become a habit, although unfortunately not one that was never broken.

Henry nodded and then gestured with his thumb to the door, "You should get going, you don't want to keep her waiting."

Downstairs, in Jo's office, Diana frowned thoughtfully. It had taken her no more than the ten minutes between finishing with General Mansfield and Larry's arrival to find and access the security camera footage for all of GD. With the next ten minutes, between Larry's interview and Henry's, she'd gained control of the entire security system. The problem was the sheer quantity of information. Watching Henry collect Fargo had been a no-brainer - she wanted to see what he had to say and she wanted to see how Fargo reacted. It had been…interesting.

But she had months of video footage at her disposal, and not much time. She thought briefly, and then smiled and began to type, quickly setting up parameters for a search through the databases of footage. Then she paused, tapping one finger against the desk. "It's always the cover-up, never the crime," she said aloud, adding another set of instructions.

_*This really ought to be a technical note in The BOUS Problem, but I forgot to include it - the real technological feat in that story wasn't the sonoluminescence (although that's probably impossible, too) - it was making robot bats that fly! We actually don't really understand how bats fly, so those bats are pretty much flat-out impossible. All the sound stuff however - from infrasonic sound to cavitation to sonoluminescence - was at least based on real theories. _

_A/N Aren't Saturdays nice? I love days that I don't have to work! Short chapter, but I stopped where I did for a reason - so that you could play along. Feel free to give away what Diana will discover in Chapter 8 in the reviews. _


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Carter tapped the case of bees in Parrish's lab thoughtfully. The bees buzzed frantically, whirring and humming as if screaming desperately for release.

"So, they're harmless?" he asked.

"Well, not harmless," Parrish replied scornfully. "But certainly not dangerous. It does hurt to get stung. If Dr. Dickinson was here, I'm sure he'd be willing to volunteer to stick his arm in the case to demonstrate, but I'm not going to do the same."

"Dr. Dickinson?" Carter asked.

"He raises the bees," Parrish said dismissively. "He's an entomologist from the biological research division."

"What lab is he in?" Carter asked. "I think I'd like to talk to him." So far he'd had absolutely no luck in finding anything that might be causing Zane's symptoms. Henry had provided him with some sophisticated device that used nano-sensors to test for the presence of toxins but the stupid thing had yet to beep, much less go off with the vigor that a solid find would have warranted. (Henry had demonstrated in the infirmary using a sample of botulism and everyone within earshot had cringed.)

"He hasn't shown up today," Parrish complained. "It's most annoying: he was supposed to provide replacement bees." Parrish pointed out some dead bees in the bottom of the case.

"Did he call in?"

"He doesn't work for me. I wouldn't know." Parrish seemed offended by the question.

Carter sighed inwardly. He knew that Parrish was really an okay person - he'd seen him apologize to Fargo and be moved over Kwon's death. But he could be such a pain to deal with. "Who does he work for?" he asked patiently.

"Do I look like I work in biological research? How would I know?" Parrish sighed with impatience.

"Thanks for your help," Carter said, voice tight. He left the nullweps lab, feeling annoyed, and tried to think of who he knew in biological research.

Aha!

"Sheriff Carter, how nice to see you," Emily Glenn smiled at Jack and he smiled back easily, glad to be away from the typical GD temperamental scientist.

"I'm actually looking for a Dr. Dickinson," he told her. "I was hoping you might know where to find him?"

"Oh, of course," Emily nodded. She looked at the test tubes she was holding as if momentarily confused. "Oh, let me just - could you - no, I'll - hmm, okay." She put the test tubes into a rack, and turned back to Carter, saying, "I'll show you to his lab."

"Those are going to be okay, aren't they?" he asked, eying the test tubes warily.

"Oh, yes," she said brightly. "I mean-" she looked doubtful. "Well, they won't explode or anything."

"Good enough," said Carter quickly, "Lead the way."

In the hallway, she asked why he was looking for Dr. Dickinson, and Carter filled her in on Zane's collapse and the bee sting on his hand.

"That's so unfortunate. My, he does have bad luck. But it really couldn't be a bee sting. Apitoxin can be unpleasant, but it couldn't cause paralysis. It's mostly an anti-inflammatory. Some people actually try to use it to treat arthritis or fibromyalgia. I'm afraid you're wasting your time, Sheriff."

"Well, at the moment, I don't have another direction to look, so I might as well talk to Dr. Dickinson."

"Ah, a good scientist," she said warmly, gesturing with open hands before folding them in front of her. "Research is always valuable."

Carter felt mildly stunned to be called a good scientist, but with a sideways nod, tried to accept the compliment gracefully.

"Here we are," Emily said, opening the door to Dr. Dickinson's lab. "And no, he doesn't seem to be here." She walked across the room to his computer and began examining the images on the screen.

The lab was one of the simplest Carter had ever seen at GD. It contained no mysterious equipment, no flashing lights, no giant black boxes of doom. And no bees. He sighed. Apparently this had been a waste of time.

"Hmm…" Emily was making the thoughtful hum of the intrigued scientist by the computer.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I'm not quite sure. It does look as if he's been experimenting with bees." She looked around the lab absently. "But the bees aren't here." She looked back at the computer, and tilted her head to one side. Almost as if she wasn't aware of what she was doing, she sat down and put her hand on the mouse and started scrolling. "This is…hmm…"

Carter stayed quiet while she read. He could tell by the pinking of her cheeks and the liveliness in her eyes that she was excited by what she was reading, but as far as he could tell, looking over her shoulder, it was absolutely meaningless.

"Wow," she leaned back in the chair, finally, looking stunned. "This is such a wonderful place to work. People are doing such incredible things."

"So, what exactly is Dr. Dickinson doing?" Carter asked carefully.

"Look," she scrolled up through the images again and pointed something out to Carter. "Isn't that amazing?" Her voice was awed.

Carter took a look and then shook his head, ruefully. "Ah, no idea what that is."

"Oh, it's the mitochondrial DNA structure. He's working on the catalytic DNA polymerase…" she paused, looking at Carter thoughtfully. She frowned, her mouth twisted, and she seemed to be thinking very intently. She closed her eyes for a period of several seconds. Carter waited patiently. Finally, her eyes popped open and she said, cheerfully, "Dr. Dickinson is genetically modifying bees so that instead of producing honey, they produce an extremely high-energy ethanol-like product that could be used to fuel cars or other gasoline-based products. Generators, maybe? If he gets what he's aiming for, it might be as good as jet fuel, which would be astounding. That's incredibly concentrated power. And you could produce it in your backyard."

"That would be…interesting." Carter nodded, trying to wrap his head around that idea. Backyard beehives that produced jet fuel? Why did he have a feeling that that was a bad idea?

His phone rang, and with some relief, he pulled it out. It was Andy so he flipped it open and answered. "What have you got, Andy?"

"Mostly bad news, boss. I haven't been able to find anyone who saw anything this morning, except for one woman who saw Ms. Lupo leaving Dr. Donovan's house at a little after 9 and was very excited to tell me so."

"That's not much use."

"I did find a dead body, however."

"Excuse me?"

"I found a dead body. Two doors away from Dr. Donovan's apartment building."

Carter looked at the computer. "Would that be the body of a Dr. Dickinson, by any chance?"

"How did you know?" Andy's habitually cheerful voice seemed delighted by Carter's precognition.

"Oh, just a lucky guess, I guess," Carter said, shaking his head. Some days went from bad to worse. Did this mean that there were killer bees - real, true, almost instantly fatal killer bees - loose in Eureka?

_A/N So, yeah, sorry...I realized that my timing would be all messed up if I didn't get Carter working. But I promise I will reveal what Diana found on the computer very very soon. And the bees are back!  
_


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

The computer got its first hit almost immediately, and Diana started playing the selected video right away, without waiting for other results of her search. She watched the footage of an empty office - in fact, the exact office she was in - in extreme fast forward, and shook her head, smiling. She checked the date stamp, and almost humming with pleasure, ran another search. This time the real footage showed up.

Again, she watched it in extreme fast forward. The clip was about half an hour long, and for most of it, her son was sitting alone in the office, looking first pleased with himself, then thoughtful, then bored, and maybe even a little frustrated. She could tell from the way he kept glancing at the computer and then at the door that he was having a hard time restraining himself from hacking into the system, and she sympathized. She'd put her skills to more law-abiding work, but he came by his hacker instincts naturally.

The clip got more interesting just a few minutes from the end. She felt a stab of guilt to be invading his privacy like this, but then reminded herself of her last sight of him, comatose and unresponsive. If she could save his life by invading his privacy, she'd apologize later. She frowned when Zane backed Jo into the wall, reluctantly smiled when Jo knocked him on his ass, then frowned again when Zane pulled out the ring. That didn't look right. She hit pause, and rewound.

She glanced at the time. Dr. Fargo was on his way down, but he'd knock before coming in and she might have time to watch this. She played the last few minutes of the video in real-time. Hmm, the sound was messed up, distorted enough that she couldn't make out the words. Trying to think like Zane, she ran a quick search on the system for audio tools but wasn't surprised to find that there weren't any there.

Looking at the door, she pulled out her smart phone and quickly used its wireless connection to download the last few minutes of the video, and then scrolled through her apps until she found an audio repair utility. In her line of work, she often needed to try to clean up the sound from bad recordings: a hidden mike in a crowded restaurant could be next to useless without a tool that let her suppress unwanted noise and resynthesize missing sounds. This was a whole lot easier: someone - Zane, she assumed - had scrambled the sound but it was a quick and dirty job and it took her no time to remove the filter. She grabbed her wireless earpiece and slipped it into her ear, so that she'd be able to hear the sound more clearly.

Diana watched Jo enter the room.

"_You know, you really should have changed Grant's last name when you faked his identity. Once Andy let slip that his records were in the archives, it was easy to find out almost everything I wanted to know."_

Hmm, Diana made a quick mental note of the name and continued watching. She frowned when Zane confessed to committing a felony. She really wished he wouldn't say such things when he was being recorded. That was the kind of carelessness that had gotten him sent to Eureka in the first place.

And then the ring conversation…she'd been right, that was odd. Zane was giving Jo his grandmother's engagement ring while at the same time saying that he'd never even considered giving it away? What was going on?

And Jo was saying no? And then…

"_"She has a crush on you and you have played along with it and I am not going to hurt Zoe because Zoe...Zoe still loves me. And if, in this crazy fricking insane alternate universe that I really truly hate, if I have to pick between hurting someone who loves me and being with someone who doesn't..."_

Diana's mouth dropped open. She felt it happen. She felt herself gaping like a fish. _Crazy fricking insane alternate universe_? Felonies and records in the archives? What had they done? Her mind flashed back to Henry and Fargo's conversation. _"This Zane or our Zane?" _So it wasn't just Jo - Fargo and Henry knew something, too. Who else was involved?

There was a knock on the door and Diana hastily closed the open window on the computer and tucked her phone and earpiece away. Standing, she crossed to the door, trying to pull herself together. "Dr. Fargo," she welcomed him, ushering him into the room and gesturing to the chair in front of the desk.

"I'm sorry it took me a little while to get here," Fargo apologized. "There was apparently a small explosion in one of the labs, and I had to stop on the way."

"Not a problem," Diana said smoothly, "It gave me a chance to look through some other material. I apologize for the formality of this interview, but I've found that when I have the opportunity to review my conversations later, I sometimes catch details that I missed at the time. It's very useful to me, so I appreciate your willingness to let our conversation be recorded."

"Oh, of course," said Fargo, nervously waiting by the chair until Diana slid into her seat behind Jo's desk, and then sitting himself.

"So now that we're in our places, let me just confirm for the record - you're aware you're being recorded and you understand that the recording will be the property of the Department of Defense and may be used in a variety of ways, including potentially in legal proceedings." Diana didn't think that there was a chance in hell that this video would ever see the light of day: whatever was going on in Eureka was going to get stamped top-secret and buried in the depths of the classified military archives. But she wanted to see how Fargo reacted.

"Of course." He didn't quite squeak, and she didn't quite smile sympathetically. This latest piece of information put everything in a new light, but she was still trying to see how the pieces fit together. What did it all have to do with the D.E.D. device? And more importantly, how did this connect to Zane's coma?

Mansfield had been useless. He knew nothing, and was filled with bluster and hot air. Larry had been much more helpful - as she'd expected, as the assistant to the director, he was on top of the gossip, and even better, had been willing, even eager, to look up more information for her. She expected an update from him any time. Henry had been more intriguing. He was obviously being very careful about what he told her, but she now knew why. He must be from the alternate universe. But if he'd had any involvement in Zane's incapacitation or the D.E.D. theft, she'd eat her badge.

But Fargo…Fargo was a weak link. The question was, was he the right weak link? It was obvious that he was hiding something, and she had no doubt that she'd know exactly what that was before she was through here…but her first priority was to find out anything that might help Zane. And her second priority was to solve the security breach that had led to the theft of the D.E.D. device and ensure that such a thing could never happen again.

For just a moment, her thoughts drifted to the director of GD security. She had been looking forward to meeting Josefina Lupo. The Department of Defense wanted to know if Jo was responsible for the security failures that led to the theft of the D.E.D. device, but Diana had wanted to know what part she'd played in Zane's contentment in Eureka. Because coming to Eureka had been good for Zane. Yes, he seemed to wind up in jail on a regular basis, but under the surface snark, he was happy here.

The circumstances had been horrible, of course. Diana had been undercover in Thailand for almost six months, investigating a drug ring, when she found out that Zane had crashed the New York Stock Exchange, stolen $3.1 million from the U.S. Border Patrol account for drug interdiction, and, most infuriating of all, had been convicted for the latter. Any decent lawyer could have gotten him off. All he'd needed to do was call his father, but he'd been too stubborn to do so.

Her first knowledge of any of it had come from a call from the sheriff, Jack Carter, on her personal Diana Donovan line - a line that was forwarded to her on any phone, anywhere in the world. Carter had been trying to find Zane after he'd escaped from custody, and she'd helped, but oh, she'd been angry. Zane could have reached her on that number any time - and why the hell hadn't he tried before the feds were after him? Even if he didn't want to talk to his dad, she would have made the call and he would have been out of prison within a few hours. She really thought he liked having a criminal record just because it annoyed his parents so much.

She wasn't a psychologist, but it didn't really take one to know that Zane had been looking for attention. It was just like every time he got himself expelled from college. She knew he just wanted to come home but...there wasn't a home. Not really. Diana herself was gone so much of the time, and Zane's dad was as busy and as mobile as she was, if in an entirely different arena. Marrying a genius had its drawbacks. And she supposed that he could say the same of her. But they were who they were, and even if it was no one's fault, they hadn't done a very good job of raising their genius son. Zane hadn't been happy. But now he was, and Diana wanted to know why.

"Ahem?" Fargo coughed a little louder. "Do you have questions you want to ask me? I mean I don't mind waiting," he added hastily and apologetically, "but I was working on that facial recognition thing and I was really starting to see some progress. I'd already tied at least 80% of the cars to Eureka residents."

"I'm so sorry," Diana said, appalled at herself. How could she have drifted off like that? That was so unlike her. Every interview she did was crafted, manipulated. She knew how to make people comfortable, and how to make them uncomfortable, and how to shoot them back and forth between the two positions until their heads were spinning. Her ability to get people to talk was at least half the secret to her success, and one of the tricks to that secret was to never lose control of the interview. Daydreaming through the start? That was losing control, and not okay.

"Do you mind if I just take a quick peek at the infirmary and see how Zane is doing?" She was determined to get back on the right footing immediately and, as it happened, asking for permission and showing her vulnerability would do just that. For a brief moment, she was giving Fargo power, but only so that she could take it back with a vengeance.

"Oh, of course," Fargo said, looking surprised. "Um, how?"

Diana typed a few quick commands into Jo's keyboard. "Oh, I have access to the security cameras." She kept her eyes on the screen, as she pulled up the image of Jo sitting next to the unconscious, unmoving Zane. No change. Jo was still talking, and Diana wished briefly that she had the time to listen in to that conversation.

Then she turned back to Fargo and smiled brightly, saying innocently, "I can see - and hear - anything that happens in the building." She let her knowledge of Fargo's conversation with Henry shine in her eyes and knew, from the abrupt motion of Fargo's Adam apple, that he'd seen it, too.

"So, where shall we start?" He didn't respond and she let the silence drag on and on, looking at him questioningly, as he shifted anxiously in his seat.

_A/N A lot of the information in this chapter was supposed to be revealed in a nice dialog with Carter, but he's busy doing other things because of Jo's recalcitrance. I feel like it's a little clunky as a result, but I can't lose it without messing up something fun in my ending, I can't pull Carter back in, and I really don't think that there's another character that Diana would have had that conversation with. Plus, I really want to start writing the next chapter. So I'm sorry for Diana's slightly awkward reminiscing, but your reward for tolerating it should be another double update day. (I hope, anyway!) _


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Fargo's phone rang, breaking the long pause, and Diana bit back a smile at the look of relief on his face as he hastily fumbled for the device.

"It's Carter," he said, holding the phone up.

"Go ahead," she nodded. She did not discreetly look away but kept her eyes on him. After his first relieved, "Carter, what do you have?" he got very quiet and seemed to be mostly listening, with an occasional "okay" and yes."

Just then her phone rang. She reached for it and checked the caller ID. Larry. Perfect. Still watching Fargo, she answered. "Larry, what do you have for me?"

"Six arrivals during that time frame, Ms. Prince, and four departures. But only one person who both arrived and departed. Would you like me to email you the list of names?"

"Yes, thank you." Diana answered thoughtfully. Fargo was now looking at the floor as he listened to Carter. "Is the last one on the list named Grant?"

Fargo flinched, looking up quickly, and then looking away just as quickly. He had obviously heard her, despite his own conversation. Diana hid another smile. She hoped Dr. Fargo avoided poker games. He did not have the face for it.

"Why, yes, how did you know?"

"Just a lucky guess. I think I'm going to have another job for you, Larry, but hang on for a minute while I speak to the director."

"Yes, ma'am."

Diana turned the phone away. Fargo was avoiding her eyes now, so she asked, without waiting for him to finish his call, "What is it? What does the Sheriff know?"

"Okay, Carter. I'll wait to hear from you." He closed his phone. "The good news is that Carter doesn't think this was Beverly's organization attacking Zane." He still wasn't looking at her.

"And the bad news?"

"Andy found a scientist just a couple of houses away from Zane's apartment building."

"And?" Diana was getting impatient.

"Oh. A…a scientist's body, I should say." Fargo looked acutely uncomfortable.

"And?" Her voice was demanding. Why was he dragging this out?

"Apparently, Dr. Dickinson had been working on some sort of genetically modified bees. It's not a project I'm familiar with but I'll pull up the projects specs in my office and see what I can find out. And I'll get another entomologist to look at his research and find out what exactly he was doing. Carter said that Emily Glenn had taken a look but she's a vet, and she really does more with small mammals. Marmosets, I think."

"Dr. Fargo, could you get to the point? How does this relate to Zane?"

Fargo sighed. "Carter thinks…well, Andy believes…well, we think…" He shook his head and started over, finally looking at her. "We think that Dr. Dickinson died from being stung by one of his genetically-modified bees, and we think that Zane was also stung. Which doesn't mean that Zane will die," he added urgently. "He's here at GD, under the best medical care. Alison will never let that happen."

Diana felt a little as if the wind had just been knocked out of her. She didn't say anything, just nodded, feeling numb.

"But…well, Andy's there now, and Henry and Carter are headed there to get the body and bring it back to GD for testing. I need to get someone working on Dickinson's research to see if his notes will tell us why his bees might be deadly. And we're going to have to get some people out there to secure the scene and try to contain the bees…we'll need to find out when the bees got loose, and how many of them there could be…how far do bees go away from their hives, I wonder?" Fargo had started his speech acting acutely worried about Diana's reaction, but by the end of it, he was half talking to himself and he'd pulled out his handheld tablet and was clicking away.

"I'm sorry," Fargo looked up at her. "I need to get up to the infirmary and talk to Jo. We'll need to do this interview later." _He's good in a crisis_, Diana noticed with the part of her brain that wasn't screaming _dead, dead, dead._ When presented with something that needed to be done, his demeanor had totally changed from the uncertain, unsure scientist of just a few minutes ago to a decisive authority figure.

"Of course," she nodded again. "I'll join you up there in a few minutes."

With one last anxious look at her, Fargo hurried away. Diana sat in silence for a moment, hands pressed flat against the desk. _Nothing has changed_, she told herself. _Just because someone else died, doesn't mean that Zane will die. He's in no more danger than he was an hour ago - and in fact, less, because now we might know something about what's caused this. _She nodded firmly. Yes, that was the way to think about it. Only then did the noise of Larry calling her from her phone penetrate her fog.

She brought the phone back to her face, "Larry, I'm so sorry to keep you waiting. Thank you for staying on the line."

"Oh, good," said Larry, "I wasn't sure whether I should hang up or not."

"Well, I appreciate your patience," she said warmly. She shook her head, trying to focus. What had she wanted Larry to do? Oh, right. "Are you familiar with the archives, Larry?"

"The town archives?" Larry asked, surprised.

Diana shrugged. Were those the right archives? She supposed if they were the first that came to Larry's mind, they'd be the likeliest. "Those are the ones," she said confidently. "Do you think you could go there for me and look for any records of anyone named Grant who's ever worked in Eureka? And I'm sure there must be some sort of system for checking files in and out. Could you also look at that log and see who else has used the archive within the last three months?"

"Sure," Larry said happily. "I can tell you right now, though, that Dr. Grant himself would have been there. He was the town historian for a few months. And there'll be plenty of records with Grant as a last name. One of Eureka's founders was named Trevor Grant. But he disappeared mysteriously sometime in the 1940's, I think."

"Disappeared mysteriously? That sounds interesting." Diana tried to keep her voice light. She didn't want to make Larry too curious about what she was looking for.

"Oh, yeah, it's like a famous Eureka ghost story. Five strangers show up, no one knows who they are or where they're from, and then they all disappear taking Dr. Grant with them. When I was in Boy Scouts, we always told the story around the campfire at night. We thought it was probably aliens."

Diana was nodding. That was it. Not an alternate universe, but time travel. Five strangers - that would be Jo, Fargo, Henry. And who else? Henry's wife? The sheriff? Alison Blake?

"Well, that's a great story," she told Larry, injecting a lilt of humor into her voice. "I doubt it has anything to do with what I'm looking for, though. Still it would be really helpful for me to know who else might have been working in the archives. Besides Dr. Grant, I mean." She felt a little guilty. She was now sending Larry on a wild goose chase. He'd told her everything she needed to know, but she didn't want him to realize that. That meant that he still needed to go to the archives and she needed to come up with something for him to find there. "Also, who manages security for the archives?" she asked, as an afterthought.

"Security? I don't really know. It's in town, so the Sheriff's office, I guess?" Larry sounded doubtful.

"Well, anything you can find out for me about how GD ensures the confidentiality of the old records would be useful. Thank you so much for your help, Larry. I know you're a busy man with a demanding job, but I need a partner that I can really trust for this, so it's wonderful that you're able to take the time."

"Oh, it's my pleasure, Ms. Prince. I'll get on it right away." Diana could hear the pride in Larry's voice as they said their farewells, and she smiled a little sadly. She was good at manipulating people, but right at the moment, she'd rather be the world's expert on bees. She glanced at the computer screen where the video feed still showed the infirmary. Alison, Carter, Fargo and a blonde woman that Diana didn't recognize were there now, talking to Jo, and with a decisive nod, Diana pushed herself back from the desk to join them.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

Jo had fallen silent. She was watching Zane's motionless face intently. Had she seen a flicker of his eyelids or was she imagining it? She waited, hardly daring to breathe, and then sighed. It must have been her imagination.

"Hello, Jo," Emily Glenn had approached quietly.

"Emily, hi," Jo looked up. She hadn't known Dr. Glenn before the werewolf incident, but they had definitely bonded during the period when Zane had been a wolf, and Jo was glad to see her now. Alison stopped by every twenty minutes or so, but so far it had always been to report that no progress had been made, and that didn't exactly make Jo feel better. She'd been talking to Zane for hours, telling him a little about their previous life together, and a lot about things that had happened in her Eureka, both with him and without him. Sometimes she'd fallen into thoughts of the future and occasionally she'd started telling him stories of her own history but she'd realized as she talked that she and her Zane - her first Zane - had lived very much in the present. They hadn't talked a lot about their pasts or their families or the events that had shaped them.

"Dr. Donovan certainly manages to find trouble, doesn't he?" Emily said, looking at Zane's unconscious body.

"That's one way to put it," Jo said wryly. Then a sudden thought crossed her mind, and she said, although not with a lot of hope, "Hey, do you think your gizmo solution could help him?"

"Oh, no. No, no," Emily shook her head decisively. "It's an immune system booster and an allergic response is really an immune system over-reaction. The last thing Dr. Donovan needs is for his immune system to view the bee sting as more of a threat than it already is."

"The bee sting?" Jo asked, surprised. "How did you know that?" She glanced at Zane's hand. It was on the other side of the bed, but Alison had turned it up on on of her early visits so that they could easily see if his skin response to the sting was changing at all.

"Oh, I helped Sheriff Carter find Dr. Dickinson's lab. Poor Dr. Dickinson," Emily sighed. "He was a good man. And a brilliant scientist. He'll be missed."

"What does that mean?" Jo's voice had gone tight and urgent.

Emily looked startled. "Oh, have you not…" she glanced over her shoulder, as if looking for someone. "Has the sheriff not been here yet?"

"No, he hasn't. What does Dr. Dickinson have to do with Zane?" Jo's hand had tightened on Zane's until she was squeezing it fiercely, her fingers white with the stress.

Emily looked plaintive. "I think I'd like to start with the ending first this time," she said. Looking intently at Jo, as if to make sure that she heard and understood every word, she said, "I'm here to help create an antivenom that will save Zane's life."

Jo let out a huge sigh of relief and relaxed, every muscle in her body loosening with gratitude. "Okay. I like that."

"It looks as if it won't be needed, though." Emily added.

"What?" The tension was immediately back, Jo's muscles constricting as if she'd been shocked with cold water.

"Stop that," Emily said reprovingly, tapping the back of Jo's hand. "There are kinder ways to test for responsiveness to pain. I think a pin prick is a more usual method." *

"What?" Jo was confused.

"You're hurting him." Emily pointed out with great patience.

"Oh!" Jo hastily dropped his hand, and looked at his face. "Zane, can you hear me?" she asked, for the twentieth time that day. There was no response, but his grimace of pain had smoothed out. "That's a good sign, isn't it?" she asked Emily.

"That he's feeling pain? Oh, yes. I mean, I'm not a medical doctor. We might want to get Dr. Blake to come run some neurological screening. But a typical neurotoxin…well, if there can be said to be such a thing as a typical neurotoxin…I'm not sure we can really generalize about them quite so globally…"

"Emily!" Jo broke into Emily's stream of thought quite gently, given the circumstances, she thought. Snapping at her was surely preferable to shaking her or slapping her, two other options that crossed Jo's mind.

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry." Emily shook herself out of her distraction. "Let's see…" she used her fingers to count off facts. "Dr. Dickinson genetically-modified bees to produce super-powered honey. Unfortunately, his modifications must have affected the bees' apitoxin, changing it from something mildly unpleasant to a far more dangerous neurotoxin. Neurotoxins can be deadly, but sometimes, if the dose isn't high enough to kill, they wear off. Based on the fact that Zane is emerging from his coma, I'd say that this is one of those times. There." She looked quite pleased with herself.

"Thank you," Jo sighed. She looked at Zane again - he was as still as he'd been all day. "Are you sure he's waking up?"

Emily shrugged, and then said, loudly, "I apologize for this, Dr. Donovan." With two fingers, she pushed, hard, on a spot below his earlobe and behind his jaw. His head shifted and his eyes moved, although they didn't open. "A flinch," Emily said. For a moment, she looked almost sad as she added, "I was quite excited about creating an antivenom. I've never done it before. Although," she added, cheering up, "we might still want one since the bees are apparently loose. And it's a lot less pressure to create one that's not needed immediately."

"So the bees are flying free? And they're potentially deadly?" Jo latched onto the security issue immediately, ignoring the crazy scientist part.

"Apparently, yes."

"That's bad," said Jo, looking at Zane. She'd been determined to stay with him, but killer bees in Eureka? She was going to be needed. "Fargo," she said with relief, as she saw him come through the door.

His head was down, his eyes locked on his tablet, and he was walking without looking where he was going. At the sound of her voice, he turned in her direction. "Three thousand eggs a day," he said, tragically. "A queen bee can lay hundreds of thousands of eggs. And every one a killer. This is a disaster."

_* A pin prick is not how hospitals test for responsiveness to pain. But Emily's a vet, what does she know? _


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

There seemed to be a lively debate occurring over Zane's bed as Diana approached.

"We have to evacuate, at least the nearby streets," Fargo was insisting. "We've lost two scientists this week already - working in Eureka is going to beat out commercial fishing for the position of deadliest occupation in America."

"Two scientists?" Diana's voice was sharp, and the group around Zane's bed - Jo, Fargo, Alison, the sheriff (who she recognized from reviewing his file, although they'd never met) and the unknown blonde - turned to acknowledge her.

"Dr. Kwon," Fargo shook his head. "Unrelated. Have you met everyone? This is Diana Prince, Zane's mom."

Diana looked at Fargo, surprised, then smiled, a little ruefully. That wasn't her usual introduction. In fact, she couldn't remember if anyone had ever defined her that way before. It felt…nice. Not just because she valued that part of her life, which she did, but because Fargo had apparently decided that that was the important thing about her - more than the DoD investigation, more than the Wonder Woman reputation. It said something about his relationship with Zane, something quite surprising given what she knew of their interactions.

But then…_this Zane or our Zane? _she remembered Fargo's words_…_these time travelers had had a different set of experiences. That must make life confusing for them.

"Jack Carter," Carter introduced himself, reaching out to shake her hand. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. We spoke once before."

"Did we?" Diana responded in her mildest voice, eyes intent on Carter's face, as she accepted his handshake.

"Ah, perhaps not," Carter hastily corrected himself. "Could be I'm mixing you up with someone else."

Diana smiled brightly. _Gotcha_. He was definitely the fourth time traveler. Now she just needed to figure out who was number five. "No, we did," she confirmed for him. "You were the one who told me Zane was in Eureka."

He smiled with relief. "And you told me where to find him."

"That cabin," she sighed. "Zane loved that summer, but for me it was all bugs, rain, and boredom. I swore I'd never come to Oregon again."

Carter smiled. "Our summers can be an acquired taste," he acknowledged. "Especially the rainy ones."

"Emily Glenn," Emily introduced herself to Diana.

"You're the vet, right?" Diana asked, remembering Fargo's marmoset digression.

"I am, yes. I'm here to start working on an antivenom, as soon as someone brings me some bees."

"Henry confirms that our haz mat suits should be fine, so the security team is on the way," Jo reported. She returned to talking on her phone, pacing a few steps away from the bed. "We need a decision on evacuation or warning."

"I don't want to lose another person," Fargo insisted. "I say evacuate until we figure out what to do."

"Let's at least get Dickinson back here and let Henry do an autopsy," Carter suggested. "And test some bees. This could still be something else. Or a crazy coincidence. Maybe Dickinson had a bad heart."

"Zane's definitely coming out of it, though," Alison reported. While the others had been talking, she'd been leaning over Zane, listening to his heart, looking at his retinal response, and finally pressing his fingernails. "He's a six, getting close to a seven on the Glasgow scale. The eye movement in response to pain is a great sign. And I suspect that we could take him off the respirator and he'd be breathing on his own, although I'd rather wait until he regains consciousness. No reason to take any chances."

Diana felt an enormous wave of relief flow over her, so strong that she almost staggered backward. Her eyes met Jo's and for a moment, they were in complete joyful communion. Then the person on the phone said something to Jo and she turned to ask him to repeat the question and the moment was over. But - tentatively - Diana decided that she could really like Jo Lupo. She recognized the strength of Jo's love for Zane and just as she didn't like people who insulted her boy, she was very fond of people who adored him.

A decision had apparently been made. "Warnings, evacuate those who want to go, try to determine a method of tracking bees." Fargo sighed.

Carter nodded. "It's a plan," he agreed. "I'm headed out. I'll connect with Andy and we'll get you some bees." With a brief wave, and an affectionate pat on Alison's shoulder, he aimed for the door. Alison smiled fondly after him and then turned back to Zane.

"Track bees?" asked Diana.

Fargo scratched his head ruefully. "Yeah, I have no idea how that's going to work. It's not like we can use facial recognition software on them."

"Oh, how did the facial recognition mapping work for you?" Diana asked, realizing that they'd never followed up with that. Not that it mattered now, since apparently Zane's coma was just another one of those weird Eurekan accidents that she kept hearing about.

"It's amazing," Fargo was instantly distracted. "The facial recognition software is such an achievement. I didn't have time yet but I really want to explore the code and find out whether the designer used component analysis or linear discriminate analysis. Or maybe something else entirely. But the matching algorithms are amazing. I had to leave before it was finished, but I'd gotten almost 80% success and it was still running. Let me show you."

He turned to the nearest desktop system and grabbed the keyboard. Quickly, he pulled up his mapping application. "Wow, we're down to less than 10% unrecognized. I don't know that it matters now, but if you wanted, we could go ahead and up-link to your system for the larger database, and let the computer get to work on those last few images. I know it'll take a while, since it'll be sorting through millions of images instead of just a few thousand, but…oh."

"Oh?" Diana asked.

Fargo pointed out a spot on the map of Eureka. "Beverly is in town," he said simply.

_A/N I know these are really short chapters, but I like to stick with a single point of view when I can and…at the moment…that means short chapters. _


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

"Beverly?" Jo snapped out the name. "Where?" If Beverly was in Eureka, Jo was damned well going to arrest her.

Fargo typed quickly, zooming in on the map. "15 Curie Lane," he reported.

"That's the archives, isn't it?" Jo asked, recognizing the address as the building that she and Carter had visited so recently. "I'm on my way." She started toward the door.

"Wait," Diana put up a hand to stop her and Jo reluctantly paused. She wanted to keep going, but if Diana had information that would be useful…"How long has she been there?"

Shaking his head, Fargo typed some more, trying to retrieve the appropriate data. "At least three hours."

"I just sent Larry there." Diana pulled out her phone and hit redial. Jo waited, impatient to get moving. Fargo grimaced at her. While the phone rang, Diana looked away and down, turning away from the two of them.

Jo glanced at Diana. Was she listening? "What?" she whispered furiously at Fargo.

"Beverly knows too much," he whispered back, just as intensely. "You can't arrest her. If she talks, we're all screwed."

Jo paused. Shit, that was true. "She's a sociopath, Fargo. She's dangerous."

"Yes, to us," he snapped, although still in a whisper.

Jo glanced at Diana. Had she heard that? "How bad is-" she gestured with her thumb at Diana. Fargo rolled his eyes. Diana was still turned away, apparently listening to her phone intently although she wasn't talking.

Fargo had dropped into the chair in front of the computer while he was typing but now he stood, and pulled Jo a few steps away, trying to achieve a greater sense of privacy. "I might have screwed up," he admitted quietly.

Jo rolled her eyes. "Worse than I did with this?" she asked, pointing to her ring. "She has to know that there's something crazy about this. I have no idea if Zane's ever even mentioned my name to her. And now I'm claiming he wants to marry me?" She glanced at Zane's unconscious body and grimaced, hoping the look of pain on his face was not true pain but just a result of something temporary Alison was doing.

Fargo looked pained, too, but his pain was purely emotional. "I might have said something about this Zane or our Zane."

Jo closed her eyes and then covered her face with her hands, thinking hard. "If we're fucked* anyway," she finally said, dropping her hands, "then I'm arresting Beverly and she's going down with us. I know this isn't all her fault, but let's face it, Fargo - if there's anyone who deserves to be sanctioned, it's her."

"Nobody deserves solitary for the rest of their life, Jo. Nobody." Fargo was serious.

Jo smiled weakly. "Think positive, Fargo. Maybe after a decade or so, Beverly will be willing to act on those fantasies you emailed her that time you thought you were going to die."**

Fargo was not amused.

"I'm going after Beverly, Fargo. I have to." Jo knew that Fargo didn't really understand. But…she was a police office. Okay, maybe, technically, not any more, but she'd been one long enough to know, with her heart and her soul, that some people were so dangerous that any risk to catch them and stop them was acceptable. And Beverly was one of those people. The longer she was free, the more damage she could do. Would do.

At that moment, Diana turned around, her face serious. "Larry's not answering his phone. I think we need to treat this as a hostage situation."

Jo sighed and closed her eyes again, thinking furiously. "I can't pull my teams off the bees," she said finally. "We still have no idea how many bees are loose, how dangerous they are, how many people might be at risk…security has to keep working to clear that area. I can't move them to the archives."

Diana nodded. "Let's go," she said.

"What?" asked Jo.

"You're armed, right?"

"Of course," Jo automatically touched her back and then blinked, a look of regret crossing her face.

"Yes, your sensei would kick your butt for that," Diana said cheerfully. "Don't give away the location of your weapons. Not even to your future mother-in-law."

Jo blinked again, the expression this time more like shock. Future mother-in-law? She hadn't really thought of things in those terms before.

"I hope that's not your only gun, though," Diana continued.

Jo sighed. Rock. Hard place. "No," she admitted.

Diana looked pained. "Really?" she demanded. "Never tell someone that. Your back-up gun isn't back-up if I know it's there." She sighed, "That said, I was on a military flight to Eureka. I'm unarmed, so unless you want to share, you're lead on this one. I'll be the backup with the best emergency weapon ever invented at the ready."

Jo looked puzzled. Diana held up her phone. "Best emergency weapon ever invented. If we get into trouble, I'll call for help."

Jo couldn't stop her smile. She nodded.

Fargo sighed, resigned. "Jo," he said to her, "just think about this, okay?" She could tell that he wasn't going to say anything more with Diana right there, but that he was still asking for her to try to make this end in some way other than Beverly revealing all to the authorities.

"I'll try to get Larry out alive," she said, pointedly.

"She's not-" Fargo started defensively, and then sighed. "Yes. You're right. Kim and Kevin and Alison - Beverly doesn't care who she risks." He was listing the people that Beverly had threatened or killed in the time they'd known her. "So don't take any chances," he added firmly.

Now Diana was looking puzzled, and Jo hastily said, "I won't. Let's go." She gestured to Diana and together the two of them headed out the door, Jo giving only the slightest backward glance to Zane. He was in good hands, she reassured herself. And with a glance at Diana, she added the thought that maybe so was she.

Ten minutes later, Jo and Diana were driving down the main road to Eureka, Jo taking the winding curves with a more casual ease than she'd given them earlier in the day. Something about going after Beverly reminded her of the first sunny day after weeks of rain - she just felt happy.

She glanced at Diana, sitting next to her in the car, and said impulsively, "You must have questions. What do you want to ask me?"

_*I so debated Jo's language here. It wouldn't be said on TV, of course. But I kind of feel like Jo would say it in these circumstances. Does it automatically make the story an M? If yes, tell me so, and I'll change the rating. _

_**See _Try, Try Again_. An excellent episode!_

_A/N After an obsessive weekend, sadly I have to go back to work. That means the next chapter will be slow again. But if there's a question that you think you'd want to ask Jo (assuming you were Diana) please share. I only know of one question that Diana's going to ask at the moment, and that's going to come after the Beverly scene, so there's a whole car ride into Eureka to figure out.  
_


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen **

"Questions?" Diana chuckled. "Oh, yes, just a few. Let's start with the most urgent ones, though. Phone numbers. Who do I call if this goes wrong?"

Jo glanced at her. "Connect your phone to the car's computer and you can download my directory. Call Carter first, then probably Fargo. GD security will follow his orders, so that'll be faster than you trying to explain to them who you are and why they should listen. Mansfield…well, if you call Mansfield, we'll get military help."

"Mmm, I'd rather not need to call Mansfield." Diana was following instructions as she spoke, placing her phone on the car's console for the download. "I believe he's sulking back at the B&B. He wasn't pleased with our interview."

She looked at Jo to see her reaction to that but Jo's face was unrevealing. Diana knew from personnel records and the information she'd gathered before coming to Eureka that Mansfield was one of Jo's biggest supporters. He'd pushed hard for her to get the job as head of GD security when other voices thought she might be too young. One cynical colleague of his had said, "He stacked the place with puppets, and then he's surprised that things go wrong?" But Fargo…well, Diana didn't think he was a puppet. And if Jo was a puppet, she'd clearly broken the strings when she pulled out that ring.

When the Department of Defense had asked Diana to investigate, it wasn't just the theft that they wanted resolved. Oh, they wanted her to find anyone involved, especially if it was an inside job. But they also wanted to know what weaknesses had led to the theft. Was the director useless? Was the head of security incompetent? Had General Mansfield failed? Her conclusions were going to make or break careers.

The DoD had already accepted part of the conclusions of the initial report - the part that said that Zane wasn't responsible. They'd believed that her relationship with Zane would be an asset, giving her an inside, intimate look at the dynamics and structure of Global Dynamics. Zane's reputation as a rebel had been deemed useful, for who better to provide insight into the authorities than the guy who continually challenged them? But they hadn't known about his involvement with Jo.

If Jo was an absolutely Machiavellian mastermind and had recognized Diana as Zane's mother before she'd introduced herself as such - a possibility since Zane certainly owned pictures - it would have been diabolically clever to ally herself with Zane through a fake secret engagement and then kill him. It was the first thought that had occurred to Diana, who had something of a Machiavellian mind herself. It would have been a lot to do for a job, but what if she was a traitor?

But the ring didn't make sense in that scenario - how would she have gotten it? And her behavior didn't fit - she would have had to be an incredible actress. Now that Diana knew about the time-travel and the alternate universe, she had a much more satisfying explanation of the mysterious engagement. But she needed to understand Jo better, needed to figure out her motivations. Maybe she should simply accept Jo's easily overheard words to Fargo at the infirmary at face value, but it wasn't her nature.

"Next question, the archives. Can you describe them to me so I know what we're getting into How many doors? Windows? Who else is likely to be there? What's the surrounding area like?"

Jo nodded and immediately fell into a military-speak tactical description of the terrain, Diana listening intently.

"And Beverly? How's she going to react when she sees you?"

"She'll know I'm trouble," Jo said confidently. "She'll either try to run or kill me immediately."

"So I should go in first then, and see what the situation is. Beverly won't recognize me."

"That…makes sense," Jo said reluctantly. "Not unarmed, though. Beverly is dangerous." Reaching over, she pressed her palm flat against the glove compartment, until there was a little click. "Palm print lock. There's a gun inside."

"Why do you think so?" Diana asked. "There's absolutely nothing in any of her records that would indicate that Beverly Barlow is a criminal."

Jo glanced at her, looking startled. "Nothing? But-" She stopped. "She is. I can't tell you how I know that, but I promise you it's true."

"I'm here investigating for the D.o.D.," Diana said gently. "You can tell me anything. You should, in fact, tell me anything I need to know about her if you believe she's involved with the theft of the D.E.D. device."

Jo sighed. "I really…I really can't. We don't have time right now anyway. Let's just catch her first and then…we'll see what happens."

Diana nodded, thoughtfully, thinking about everything she knew, all the different pieces and how they fit together, and trying to imagine what she would do in Jo's situation. She opened the compartment and pulled out the gun. "A Beretta Tomcat?"

"Underpowered, I know, but it's just a backup piece. You know guns?"

"Only a little," Diana was quick to downplay her knowledge. "I had one like this for a while, though."

"Good, you'll know how to use it. You shouldn't have to, but it's better to be on the safe side. We're almost there. Any last questions?"

Diana laughed. "Oh, yeah, I've got a few more questions. Quite a few really, but at least a couple of important ones."

Jo pulled the car to a stop on the street. "Here we are. There's Larry's car."

Diana slipped the gun into her bag and tucked the phone next to it. "I'll save the questions for later. So I'll walk in, check things out, say hello to Larry, and come back here. She's probably just doing research there. With any luck she won't even notice me."

"Five minutes," said Jo. "Then I'm coming in after you."

"Make it ten," said Diana. "If she's there, I don't want to make her suspicious by seeming too obviously in a hurry."

"All right," Jo nodded. She grinned at Diana and pushed a button on her watch. "You're on."

Diana smiled back and stepped out of the car, thinking that Jo's grin had the telltale enthusiasm of an adrenaline junkie. If she was, she'd be a good partner for Zane. She pulled open the door of the building and stepped inside, part of her wondering how soon Zane would wake up. She really wanted to talk to him, more now than ever. Despite her awareness, her knowledge that she was walking into potential danger, the change from the bright outside light to an interior dim affected her eyes momentarily, and she tripped over Larry, whose body was lying prone across the hallway.

"Larry," she gasped, almost catching herself from falling before dropping to her knees.

"Goddammit, this place is Grand Central Station today."

Diana looked up and into the barrel of a gun. Well, okay. Apparently Fargo and Jo were right that Beverly was dangerous.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen **

Jo waited out the ten minutes impatiently, glancing at her watch far too often and in her rear view mirrors even more often. She had the pre-combat jitters, and was running through possible scenarios in her mind. First and foremost was the question of whether Beverly had accomplices. But no one seemed to be watching the building or behaving suspiciously, and she thought it more likely that Beverly had made a furtive trip into Eureka alone. She wondered what Beverly was looking for in the archives.

Nine minutes. Jo kept her eyes on the door, willing it to open. Diana wouldn't have misjudged the time. Larry might be keeping her talking, but she'd be out before the ten minutes was up.

Nine minutes, fifty-five seconds. Jo called Carter. She got his voice mail. "It's hard to answer the phone when you're wearing a haz-mat suit, isn't it? But Beverly's in town, Carter, at the archives and I'm going in after her. When you get this message, send help."

Ten minutes, twenty-five seconds. She called Fargo. He picked up on the first ring. "Did you get her? What's happened?"

"Diana went in to scope out the scene, and she hasn't come back out. I'm going in after her but you should send back-up."

"We've only got a skeleton crew left at GD. I'll call the bee hunters and get someone over there."

"Got it."

"Be careful, Jo."

"I will be."

She glanced at her watch. Eleven minutes. Time to go. With action at hand, her breathing slowed, her heart rate dropped, and her jitters fell away. Out of the car, walking up the sidewalk, she looked around as if casually. Still no one watching. Pausing outside the door, she slipped her gun out of its holster, and let it rest seemingly casually down her leg. She'd prefer a two-hand hold and a fast entry sweep, but she couldn't manage that while also pulling open the door, so, standing sideways, she opened the door slowly and glanced inside. She waited, letting her eyes adjust to the light. There was no one in the entry hall, so she stepped inside and put her back to the side wall, while she listened intently.

There. Maybe three doors down the hallway? As quietly as possible, Jo slid forward, keeping her back against the wall. She took the risk of a quick glimpse into the room and pulled back immediately, trying to make sense of what she'd seen. Beverly was standing in front of a table laden with boxes, gun in one hand, syringe in another. There was no sign of Diana or Larry.

Now or never. "Freeze," Jo snapped, stepping into the doorway, gun at the perfect two-handed mid-center position.

Beverly looked exasperated. "Not just Grand Central, Shinjuku. Hello, Jo." Carefully, she put the gun on the table.

"Syringe, too," Jo nodded at it, taking a couple quick steps into the room.

Beverly chuckled, but set the syringe on the table. "Don't be silly, Jo."

"It's not exactly silly, Beverly. You're under arrest."

"Oh, really?" Beverly smiled, a smug, knowing smile that Jo longed to wipe off her face. "I don't think so. I think I am going to walk right out of here and you're not going to stop me."

"Ah, yes, I think I am," said Jo. "I repeat, you're under arrest. Put your hands on your head." She didn't relax her position, keeping her gun aimed squarely at Beverly.

"You can't arrest me." Beverly didn't bother to move.

Jo was surprised. Beverly was going to be picky about Jo not actually being an police officer any more? "Well, not officially, but I can certainly hold you here until Carter or Andy gets here to read you your rights."

"That wasn't what I was talking about. You can't arrest me because I know your secrets." Beverly said the words almost in a lilt, delighted with her own cleverness.

"I don't know what you mean," Jo responded carefully, instinctively denying the truth, even as she let her hands drop slightly, just a few inches.

"Oh, I think you do. In fact, I know you do. If you arrest me, Jo, I'll talk. I'll tell everyone at GD all about your little time-travel adventure. I think the Department of Defense would be very interested, don't you?"

Jo gritted her teeth. She'd always hated Beverly's patronizing voice.

"I'll tell you what we're going to do instead," Beverly continued. "You're going to help me carry these boxes out to my car, and then we're going to come back in here, and I'm going to give you this sedative I've prepared. It's perfectly harmless - you'll sleep for a few hours, and wake feeling refreshed and ready to go. I'll be long gone."

"What's in the boxes?" Jo asked.

"Just Grant's records. I haven't been able to track him down since that chaos, but people are predictable. He'll return to familiar ground and with these records, I'll be able to figure out where that is. My organization will be waiting."

"I know he helped you steal the D.E.D. device, but he betrayed you back in 1947. He chose to save Alison's life. Why would you be looking for him?"

"I believe I'll be able to convince him to try again."

"But the bridge device is destroyed."

"Grant can build it again. He's the only one who can."

Jo nodded slowly. "That's probably true. But I'm not going to let you do it."

Beverly laughed mockingly. "How are you going to stop me?"

"I could kill you, you know," Jo pointed out, pulling her gun back up. "I could shoot you right now. You've got a gun. I can say you were resisting arrest."

Beverly laughed again and said, with fake sympathy. "Poor Jo. It's frustrating, isn't it? But you forget - I was your therapist. And as I said, people are predictable."

"What does that mean?" Jo asked, annoyed.

For the first time, Beverly put her hands up. Not above her head but by her face. She waved them, almost teasingly. "I'm not armed. I put my gun down. You could no sooner shoot an unarmed person than fly to the moon. Without a rocket."

Jo longed to pull the trigger. She wanted it passionately, yearned for it with a fierce intensity that almost made her shudder. For just a moment, she thought about how much was at stake. Her job, her life, her future. Zane. She wanted her fifty years with him, not fifty years with Fargo in the cell next door. Sanctions and solitary confinement were going to suck.

But Beverly was absolutely right. She sighed. She let her gun drop and then slid it back into its holster. Beverly smirked. Then Jo pulled a set of handcuffs out of her pocket. "Beverly Barlow," she started…

Beverly's eyes widened and she started to whirl for her gun. Jo was so glad. Step, left roundhouse kick, right upper cut, a grab to the arm, twist up and behind her, shove down to the table, snap of the first cuff, snap of the second. While Beverly was still gasping in pain and shock, Jo almost contemptuously picked up her gun and slid it into her suit pocket.

"Let's try that again, shall we?" she said sweetly. "Beverly Barlow, you are under arrest for the theft of the D.E.D. device…and for being a general pain in the ass. I can't officially read you your rights but I don't want to hear anything you have to say anyway, so stay quiet."

"I will talk," Beverly wheezed out the words. "I will tell them everything I know about time travel, that you went back in time to 1947, and brought someone back here with you. They'll lock you up…"

"Shut up," said Jo, pulling her up off the table and giving her a hard shake, before turning her toward the door.

Diana was standing there, smiling. "That was quite nice," she said approvingly. "Kickboxing?"

"I like to mix it up, a little of this, a little of that." Jo glanced at Beverly, who had fallen silent, whether because of Jo's roughness or because she knew her words weren't going to get her anywhere. "Were you there long?"

"She locked Larry and me in a closet, but neglected to take away my bag. It only took me a few minutes to pick the lock, so I think I probably heard most of it."

"She's clearly insane," Jo offered weakly.

"Oh, I think probably," Diana agreed sympathetically. "But she's telling the truth about the time traveling."


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

The security personnel that Fargo had sent interrupted the conversation between Diana and Jo. Back at GD, with Beverly securely locked up in GD's high-security cell, Diana and Jo walked in silence to the infirmary. Jo knew that she should be saying something - trying to convince Diana that Beverly was lying, trying to convince her not to tell, trying something! - but she couldn't think of what.

And the thoughts of how hard this was going to be - telling Carter and Alison, Henry and Grace - kept getting in the way. What would happen to Alison's children? How would Zoe react to losing her dad? Would Zane's knowledge mean that she'd condemned him to her fate or could he still escape? The questions whirled in her brain like - well, like bees.

In the infirmary, the scene was unexpected. Emily and Fargo had happily collaborated on testing the bees - Fargo being rather an expert on bee-topsies - but now they seemed to be arguing about the design of an antivenom. Zane was sitting up in bed, respirator gone, listening to them argue, looking a little drawn, but basically fine, even dressed again. At the sight, Jo felt her knees go weak. She took a deep breath, hardly able to bear the relief.

"Oh." It was a tiny gasp from Diana, who'd brought her hand to her mouth. The tough, calculating investigator was gone and only the mom was left.

Jo looked at her, then gestured at Zane with her head. "Say hello first. I've been talking to him all day." Diana smiled at her, and then crossed to Zane's bed, and Zane finally spotted both of them. He grinned at his mom, and then looked at Jo over her shoulder, and let his grin get a little wider.

"But they're bees, Dr. Fargo," Emily was protesting.

"I understand that. Killer bees! I want all possible resources devoted to designing this antivenom so that we have it as quickly as possible."

"But we don't need it. And I can design the antivenom. I know I haven't done it before but I'm quite capable of it." Emily was flushed with annoyance.

"I'm sure you're qualified, Dr. Glenn, but you don't have the experience. This is a high-priority project. I want it as soon as possible."

"But we don't need it!"

"Just because Zane's fine doesn't mean the next person who gets stung will be fine!" Fargo snapped.

"That's not the point. They're bees," Emily snapped right back at him.

A reluctant smile pulled at Jo's lips. She walked over to join them.

"Jo!" Fargo saw her. "Everything okay?"

Jo shrugged. "Beverly's in jail," she said briefly, knowing that she couldn't give Fargo the details in front of Emily. He frowned and she acknowledged the problem by briefly closing her eyes and then shooting him a helpless look. He sighed.

"So what seems to be the problem here?" she asked brightly.

"Dr. Glenn doesn't-"

"Dr. Fargo doesn't-"

They both stopped and glared at each other, then Fargo gestured for Emily to continue.

"Dr. Fargo doesn't understand. They're bees!" Emily was irate.

Jo cocked her head, and looked at Emily, thoughtfully. "Can you explain that as if you were explaining it to me?" she suggested.

Emily looked startled. "All right." She thought for a minute, and then started counting off on her fingers. "Bees always return to their hive if they can. It's almost dark and the weather will go below freezing tonight. Bees can't survive freezing temperatures outside of the hive. No one else has been stung!" She glared at Fargo.

Jo smiled faintly as Fargo put those pieces together. "Oh!" he said. "Oh." He closed his eyes. "So in other words, all the free-flying bees will be dead tomorrow, and we only have to worry about the hive, which we will obviously treat with the utmost care?"

"Yes!" Emily was still annoyed.

"Yeah," he sighed. "Please feel free to start working on the antivenom in the morning, Dr. Glenn. And, um, thank you for your help."

"Thank you," Emily said, pleased, if a little surprised by Fargo's unexpected appreciation. She glanced at her watch, and said, "I should get going, I'm meeting a friend for dinner."

"Tell Taggart we say hi," Fargo said.

"I will," she looked startled, as she departed.

"So?" Fargo asked.

Jo glanced at Zane and Diana who were talking together in quiet tones. "She knows."

Fargo looked tired. "Okay, I'll let the others know. Do you know what she's going to do?"

She shook her head.

"All right. We'll probably meet up at Café Diem if you want to come by, if, you know, Mansfield hasn't dragged us all away in chains by then." Fargo tried to smile, but it wasn't very effective.

Jo nodded silently, biting her lip. She felt as if she'd failed them, failed all of them, and it hurt.

* * *

_A/N: Ha. Yep, I knew I was killing off the bees with a freeze from the moment I typed "unseasonably warm" in the very first chapter. I hope no one is too disappointed by my very low-tech solution to the killer bee problem. _

_A quick technical note on the bees - to the best of my ability, almost all the bee information is accurate. Africanized bees are more aggressive than European bees but not deadlier, bees do live in apiaries, the poison on the sting is called apitoxin and it is an anti-inflammatory and people do use it to treat joint problems. I'm trying to remember what other facts I used (honey badgers are cool and scary; bees can create their own queens if needed; people track bees using sugar water - all unused, right?) But in general, if it's a bee fact, it's as accurate as the internet would let me make it. _

_The exception, of course, is the bees creating ethanol. That's…yeah, not real. There are scientists working on creating "bugs" that can make gasoline substitutes, but the bugs they're using are more like e-coli and let's face it, an attack of e-coli is really unexciting. (e-coli being the cause of food poisoning.) _

_My final bee note:_

_Bees are Black, with Gilt Surcingles -_

_Buccaneers of Buzz._

_Ride abroad in ostentation_

_And subsist on Fuzz._

_Fuzz ordained - not Fuzz contingent -_

_Marrows of the Hill._

_Jugs - a Universe's fracture_

_Could not jar or spill._

_ - Emily Dickinson _

_I hope that she would not mind that I killed a scientist in her honor. _


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

Jo watched Fargo leave and then crossed to Zane's bed. He was watching her, his eyes soft, and she smiled at him as she took his hand.

"So could you hear me?" she asked.

He nodded. "A lot of the time, yeah. It was really frustrating, though. I think sometimes I got distracted by trying to make my body work, but every time I came back to the world, I could hear your voice. It was…nice. Really nice."

Jo nodded, not really paying attention. She was looking at his hand and wondering how long she had to memorize everything about it, and how long the memories would have to last.

"Okay, I didn't say that well enough," he said, moving his hand, sliding it up and around her cheek, and turning her face so that she was looking at him. "Imagine suddenly that the world is completely dark, you can't see and you can't move and you can't feel and there's nothing but sound and none of the sounds make any sense and it goes on like that for what feels like forever. And then imagine that the sound turns into the voice of the woman you love. It was a long six or seven hours. Your voice…it was more than nice."

Jo let his hand pull her down to him until their lips met and held. She let his warmth fill her, opening to him and almost desperately trying to give him all the love that she felt in one last kiss.

"Hey, what's that for?" he said, pulling back, using his thumb to brush at the tears that were rolling down her cheeks. "Don't do that."

"It's…" She brushed the tears away, impatiently and concentrated hard for a minute, trying to make them stop. "Your mom figured everything out."

She looked at Diana, who said quietly, "Almost everything. I think I have one question left."

Jo raised her eyebrows.

"Grace Deacon or Alison Blake?"

Jo pressed her lips together. It was too late now. "Alison," she admitted, before asking "How did you figure it out? And so quickly? Was it the ring, because-"

Diana was shaking her head. "No. In a way, Zane told me."

"Zane?" Jo was shocked.

Reaching into her bag, Diana pulled out her phone. She quickly found the video she'd recorded onto it earlier, and turning it, showed Jo and Zane the image of Zane confronting Jo in her office.

Jo sighed. Zane leaned back in the bed and chuckled.

"There were other clues, too," Diana offered. "I believe I would have figured it out anyway."

Jo nodded glumly. She thought back to her conversation with Fargo just that morning, telling him that no law-enforcement agent would come up with such a bizarre theory. There was no way she could have anticipated this law-enforcement agent.

"Yeah, when you told me she was scary, I really wanted to tell you to just tell her everything," Zane said, smiling at his mom. "She's hard to keep secrets from."

"But don't you understand?" Jo asked. "The D.o.D. has a protocol for time travelers…"

Zane was shaking his head. "Doesn't matter," he said confidently.

"Excuse me?" Diana said, seeming slightly offended. Jo just looked confused.

"You hold a trump card, Josefina," Zane said, putting his arm around her and pulling her toward him until she was next to him on the bed. He smiled at Diana and the smile was almost a smirk.

"I have to report this," Diana said. "I don't have a choice."

"Your mom died when you were really young, right?" Zane asked Jo. She nodded, still confused by where he was going with this. "I thought I remembered that," he said. "So you don't know the power you have in your hands. Or…well, other body parts."

"What are you talking about?" Jo asked.

"Oh, you-" realization hit Diana's eyes and she glared at him.

"I suggested seven but she was willing to go for three. I might be able to push her to four or five, if we like the first couple." Zane told his mother. He smiled, a powerful mischief in his blue eyes.

"Damn you," Diana was half laughing.

"Check?" Zane suggested.

"You're mixing your metaphors," she said irritably, but with an undercurrent of amused. "Are we playing cards or chess?"

"Let's call it chess." His voice was agreeable and the smug only showed if you knew him really, really well. "Check?" he repeated.

"And mate," she sighed, pulling out her phone and walking a few steps away from the bed.

"Children?" Jo asked, still confused.

"Well, for you and me, they'll be children. But for her they'll be grandchildren."

Jo was starting to smile. "You think she'll help us keep this secret for grandchildren?"

"I think my mom would do pretty much anything for grandchildren," Zane agreed, then pulled her close and whispered, "Although we're probably lucky she's not bargaining for more."

Jo laughed and relaxed into Zane. "You know, we should try to convince Alison to make the beds in this infirmary bigger," she said thoughtfully. "We seem to spend a lot of time here."

"Maybe we could try to stop spending so much time here instead?" he suggested.

"Yeah, that doesn't seem to work," she turned her face to his and began kissing him, taking his mouth hungrily.

"Ahem," Diana's cough was a quiet but determined interruption.

Jo pulled back, embarrassed, but Zane just smiled and held on, his arm around her. "Weren't you on the phone?" he said.

"I have to wait for a call-back from a secure line," she told him.

"So how did the DoD get you to come out here, anyway?" he asked Diana. "I thought you were never coming to this "godforsaken hellhole"?" He put finger quotes around the last two words, and then said to Jo, "She didn't really enjoy the summer we spent in Oregon."

Diana was smiling. "They offered me something I wanted. Something I wanted almost as much as I want grandchildren."

Zane looked wary. "What was that?" he asked cautiously.

"They expunged your record," Diana told him. "Congratulations, you're no longer a criminal." She smiled sweetly.

Zane pushed himself up in the bed. "They can't do that! I'm on parole!"

"You know, actually, you're right," Diana told him, and this time she was the one who was smirking. "They had to get you a presidential pardon for the federal part. And then - since the President didn't want to have to admit that he'd pardoned you - they sealed the records. Expunged, pardoned, and sealed. You haven't had this clean a background since you were twelve." She frowned. "Or maybe ten."

Jo was trying to hold back the laughter that was welling up, but Zane could feel it anyway. He leaned back again, pulled her a little closer and growled, "I like being a criminal."

"Nothing wrong with breaking a few laws," Diana said, scornfully. "But getting caught is just a mark of incompetence."

Jo laughed all the harder, burying her face in Zane's shoulder. "My dad would like it if you weren't a criminal," she offered, when she could finally stop laughing.

He sighed. "Well, seems like I can't do much about it," he said grumpily. Jo smiled up at him.

"Mansfield can never threaten you again," she pointed out.

"Ooh, it'd be almost worth it to see his face when we tell him. Or better yet, let's not tell him and the next time he threatens to throw me in jail, make him do the paperwork. It'd be so fun to watch him go crazy trying to find the records."

"That's just mean," Jo said happily. "He's not a bad guy, really."

"Speaking of bad guys," Diana said, leaning forward. "You had some tough choices to make today. That Beverly is a piece of work. You showed amazing restraint in not shooting her."

Jo sighed. "I was very tempted. But she was right, I can't shoot someone in cold blood. Oh!" She pushed herself up off Zane. "But what are we going to do about her? Even if you don't tell, she's going to talk."

"Don't worry about it," Diana shrugged it off.

Jo still looked worried. "If anyone can find a way to cover it up, it's my mom." Zane tried to reassure her.

"Really, Zane, haven't you learned anything from this? It's always the cover-up that burns you, never the crime." Just then Diana's phone rang, and she glanced at the caller ID, then answered.

"Good evening, sir. I'm sorry to have called so late, but I need your help with some final details in resolving the Eureka case." She listened for a moment, and then laughed and said, "Well, yes. But I had some good help on this one." She paused again and then said, "No, actually, both the director and the head of security strike me as very competent. Mansfield is a bit of a bully, but credit where credit is due - he's hired good people out here."

Jo looked at Zane, eyes asking the question. Who was Diana talking to? He shrugged, and they kept listening.

"Well, and a bit of luck. Beverly Barlow actually returned to Eureka, and we managed to catch her. She seems willing to talk so I hope we'll be able to pick up more of her organization. But we're going to need to put the information under the highest levels of security clearance: some of it is very sensitive." Diana listened for a while, frowning thoughtfully. "Yes, that sounds as if it would work."

She listened again and then chuckled. "Of course. And yes, it's simple. The military protocol about time travelers - I need it broken." She paused, laughed. "I know, it does sound exciting, doesn't it? But it was a one-shot deal, an accident. It didn't change anything." Looking at Zane and Jo cuddling on the bed, she rolled her eyes and mouthed the word "much" and then continued, "but several people are involved and for obvious reasons, I'd like to make it for your eyes only. We won't be able to do that if…mmm-hmmm…yes. Yes, I'll have Henry Deacon write the report…Yes, I only met him today, but he seems like a good guy…I will give him your regards." She paused again, this time for longer. "Well, thank you, sir. I really appreciate that. And my best to your family."

She disconnected, and slipped the phone into her bag. "There you go." She smiled warmly at Jo.

"What did you just do?" Zane asked.

"Protocols were made to be broken." She glanced at her watch, and said, a little plaintively, "You know, it's three hours later on the east coast and it's been a very long day. Is there any chance of some dinner in the near future?"

"But who was that?" Jo asked.

"The Commander-in-Chief," Diana shrugged. "Not everyone in the DoD likes taking orders from a civilian, but fortunately, we have a constitution. And I've always found him to be a very agreeable man. Quite bright."

Jo stared at her. Her blue eyes were glinting with mischief, a look that Jo recognized. She looked at Zane and the matching blue eyes smiled back at her. He dropped a kiss on her lips and then whispered in her ear, "She's very good at solving problems. You just have to be careful if you're the problem."

Then he laughed and said, "Café Diem? Alison had to go to get Jena but she said I could leave if I felt well enough, and I'm starving, too."

**Epilogue **

Hours later, Jo was cozied up next to Zane on the couch in front of the fire in Café Diem, drowsily watching the flames. Dinner had turned into an impromptu and yet wonderful celebration. Relief and the release from an ever-present undercurrent of anxiety had made the time travelers giddy with joy, and their delight was contagious, with more and more townspeople arriving and then sticking around instead of leaving. Only the select few knew what they were celebrating, but everyone enjoyed the party.

Jo could tell that Zane still felt slightly wary about the easy, casual acceptance that the time-travelers showed him, but over the course of the evening, he'd relaxed and enjoyed himself, too. He might not know all the history, but the friendship was still real. And Jo had enjoyed talking to Diana. She wasn't quite ready to answer all Diana's questions, specifically, the pointed "when is the wedding?" question, but she was pretty sure that she was going to like her mother-in-law a lot. Although maybe not enough to have seven children.

But all parties must end eventually and over the course of the last hour, people had slowly headed out into the cold night.

"Are you falling asleep there, Josefina?" Zane murmured. "Time to go home?"

"Hmm," Jo turned her face into his chest and rubbed it sleepily against his shirt. He was so wam. "Your home or mine?" she asked. "My furniture was supposed to arrive today. I never checked on it, but they were supposed to set it up."

"Either," Zane said agreeably.

Jo looked up at him, "You really don't care?"

"Anyplace with you in it, Jo-jo, is home enough for me," he said bending his head and taking possession of her lips. She lost herself in the kiss, the warmth spreading, and then rapidly turning into fire in her veins, racing through her, until breathless, she broke away.

"Okay, then," she said, laughing. "Let's go home."

* * *

_A/N Over the course of the last six weeks, I've written almost 65,000 words about Eureka (well, my version of Eureka). Even omitting a few hundred for the lines of dialog I stole, er, borrowed, from the show, that's as long or longer than the average novel. I'm really quite surprised at myself. But I've had a wonderful time, and a huge part of that has been because of your reviews. It seemed almost karmic at times that when I was feeling stuck or annoyed or bored or uncertain, my email would ding and it would be a review. Even the ones as simple as "please update" motivated me to give it another ten minutes of effort - which was often just enough to get me out of the hard part and back into the fun of it. So thank you - to everyone who's written a review and to everyone who's just read all of those many many words - your pleasure has been the reward for my efforts. Well, that and the satisfaction of giving Jo and Zane their happy ending! _


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